-^SERMONS**- 



BY 

ATTICUS G. HAYGOOD, D.D. 

President of Emory College, Oxford, Ga. 




Southern Methodist Publishing House, 
TCashville, Temi. 

1883. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



5+ 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, 
By the Book Agent of the Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



->SONTENTS.<- 

PAGE 

Solomon's Experiment and Failure 5 

Lovick Pierce: 1785-1879 31 

Christ Dwelling in Us 79 

The New South: Gratitude, Amendment, Hope 103 

"Occupy till I Come" 125 

The Christian Citizen 147 

Garfield's Memory 182 

The Mind that was in Christ , . 195 

The Faith that Saves 215 

St. Paul to Young Men 231 

Quit You Like Men 255 

The Peace Jesus Gives , 271 

Prove All Things , 285 

Baccalaureate Address , 313 

Kenneth H. McLain; or, The Christian Student 326 

The New South from a Southern Stand-point 340 

The Negro a Citizen , 373 

The Mustard-seed and the Leaven 392 

The Life to Come 410 

(3) 



SOLOMON'S EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE. 

[OXFORD, JUNE 1, 1879.-] 



" Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities ; all is 
Vanity." Eccles. i. 2. 

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and 
keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." Eccles. 
xii. 13. 

THE first text tells us what Solomon found the 
world to be when he had concluded his exper- 
iment; the second tells us what, in the sad retro- 
spect, he felt that he ought to have done. The first 
expresses, in bitterness and despair, his utter disap- 
pointment; the second gives us, with an undertone 
of remorse, his solemn conclusion as to the whole 
problem of human life and destiny. 

It is to a study of " Solomon's Experiment and 
Failure" that I invite your attention, young men, 
this morning. I do so in consideration of the 
misjudgments to which young men of culture and 
opportunity are peculiarly liable, as to the real sig- 
nificance and the true ends of human life; of the 
delusions and dangers to which they are exposed; 

"*The only principle of arrangement adopted in this volume is 
that of time ; the sermons and speeches appear here in the order in 
which they were delivered, except the last two speeches, which are 
the only ones not delivered before the students of Emory College 
and the citizens of Oxford. 

(5) 



6 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



and particularly in consideration of some of the 
tendencies and influences peculiar to our times. 

Solomon was David's son by Bath-sheba, who had 
been the wife of Uriah. At the birth of Solomon, 
David was about fifty years old. Weary of war and 
worn with trouble, he had come to that period when 
his inmost soul sighed for peace. No wonder that 
we hear him sigh, " that I had wings like a dove! 
for then would I fly away, and be at rest." The 
father's yearning heart read in the calm beauty of 
Bath-sheba's child a prophecy of peace, and he 
named him Shelomah — Solomon, "the peaceful 
one." And Nathan, God's faithful prophet and 
David's life-long friend, when he blessed the child, 
called him Jedediah— " the Lord's beloved." Da- 
vid's heart of song never reached a higher strain 
than in the seventy-second Psalm, in which, under 
the type of the approaching glory of Solomon's 
reign, the royal singer, full of prophetic faith and 
hope, depicted the more distant but everlasting glo- 
ry of the kingdom of Messiah, the Prince of Peace, 
the Lord's Christ, and the Redeemer of men. Great 
hopes were born in the cradle of this fair child, and 
in his naming, by father and prophet, was a deeper 
and holier feeling than moved the heart of the great 
Roman poet when he sung of the "Saturnian reign 
and eternal spring" that Pollio's child should bring 
to a troubled world. 

There is not time to-day to recite the historic de- 
tails of the reign of Solomon. They are found 
chiefly in the books of Kings and Chronicles. The 
descriptions of his life and character are diverse, 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure* 7 



but they are not contradictory. There is, indeed, a 
vast space between the beautiful boy, upon his cor- 
onation-day, and the broken old man, bowing him- 
self before the horrible shrine of the Assyrian 
Venus and debasing himself before the foul altars 
of Moloch and Chemosh. It may remind you of 
the painter who, in early life, selected a fair boy as 
his ideal of beauty and purity, and who, forty years 
afterward, painted a poor wretch — the child now 
grown into middle age and degraded by vice, doomed 
to the gallows, and hideous in form and expression — 
as his ideal of ugliness and moral depravity. Sin, 
young men, explains the seeming contradiction. 

The story of Solomon's life is well worth your 
study. No name is so deeply impressed upon East- 
ern legends as his. It appears in many forms. His 
deeds and character are entwined with fantastic 
tales among Persians, Hindoos, Arabians, Egyp- 
tians, and Africans. His name is found in nearly 
all the dialects of the East. Jews, Christians, and 
Mohammedans have kept the tradition of his great- 
ness and wisdom. 

He ascended the throne of David at the opening 
of the golden age of the kingdom of Israel. While 
he was king, the Jewish nation, for the first and last 
time, held rank as one of the great monarchies of 
the world. David had consolidated the loose con- 
federation of tribes into a strong and homogeneous 
nation. He had not only beaten his enemies in 
battle, but he had reduced them to vassalage. Moab, 
Edom, Ammon, were subdued, Philistia was hum- 
bled, and even proud Damascus was garrisoned by 



8 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



the warrior king. Solomon came to a kingdom 
that stretched from the Mediterranean to the Eu- 
phrates on the east, from Damascus to the border 
of Egypt on the south-west. He inherited the 
treasures that David had gathered, during a long 
and successful reign, to an almost incredible extent. 
He took the scepter amid the universal rejoicings 
of a strong, happy, and prosperous people. The 
nation was still outwardly faithful to the theocratic 
constitution. All the influences that quicken the 
energies and ambition of a people were at their 
highest tide when this favorite of earth and heaven 
ascended the throne. Knowledge, art, music, poet- 
ry had come with the wealth David brought to his 
kingdom, and were culminating toward the highest 
achievements of which the race and age were capa- 
ble. 

It was a time of boundless hopefulness among the 
people. There is one picture in the old history that 
tells us more than seems to be on the canvas. The 
ancient scribe says of the people in the opening of 
Solomon's reign: "Judah and Israel were many, as 
the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating 
and drinking, and making merry." The beginning 
was like the opening of a perfect day in spring- 
time, when the heavens bless the earth, and the 
earth smiles its gratitude to the heavens, when the 
morning air is sweet with odors and vocal with 
songs. No human career ever began with the prom- 
ise of being so nobly successful, or centered in it so 
many hopes of men and blessings of God. 

Solomon made a good and hopeful beginning. 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



9 



"While the dying exhortations of his father yet lin- 
gered in his ear, the Lord appeared to him in a 
dream, and gave him choice of Heaven's richest 
gifts. The humility and deep sense of responsibil- 
ity which led the young king to ask "wisdom" for 
the great work to which he was called, God's ap- 
proval of the wisdom that asked more wisdom in- 
stead of riches, and honor, and long life, has been 
celebrated by eloquent pens and tongues. The di- 
vine promise that he should excel not only in wis- 
dom, but in the gifts he did not ask, fascinating but 
dangerous — all this you know. 

His history as a king we can only sketch in out- 
line — we are more concerned with him as a man. 
He built the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, the 
wonder of the time, in the earlier years of his reign. 
His passion for building was as ardent as Nebuchad- 
nezzar's, and as splendid as that of Pericles. I need 
only mention the gorgeous palace he built for him- 
self, and the costly house he gave to his Egyptian 
wife, who brought him great cities for her dowry. 
To these he added vast and magnificent public build- 
ings, as the porch of pillars and the porch of judg- 
ment. He extended, strengthened, and beautified 
the wall of Jerusalem, and at convenient places in 
his kingdom erected "fenced cities, with bars and 
gates." He built Tadmor, a fortified city in an 
oasis of the desert that stretched along his northern 
frontier, midway between Syria and the Euphrates — 
the Palmyra of classic history, the capital city of 
Zenobia's warlike race. Later in his reign he built 
other palaces, modeled after the styles of Egypt and 



10 Solomon's I^xPERiMENi ANt) Failure. 



Assyria; and in its middle period, temples for the 
infernal gods his foreign wives brought to Jerusa- 
lem. No price restrained his tastes. He erected 
an ivory throne that surpassed in cost and magnifi- 
cence all that the proudest kings could boast. He 
decorated Jerusalem with ornamental pillars that 
outshone the costly memorials that fronted the 
temple of the Phenician Venus in Tyre itself. 

Solomon's foreign policy brought his kingdom 
into intimate relations with the greatest nations of 
his time. His marriage with the daughter of a 
Pharaoh cemented a treaty between Egypt and Is- 
rael for the first time in five hundred years. His 
relations with Hiram, King of Tyre, brought to 
Israel the arts and culture of the Phenicians. He 
introduced commerce, and joined his fleets with 
those of Hiram in their trading voyages to the 
coasts of distant Spain. His possession of the 
Edomite coasts enabled him to establish naval sta- 
tions at Elath and Ezion-geber, whence, sailing 
down the ^Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea into the 
Indian Ocean, they traded with lands hitherto un- 
known. India, Arabia, and probably Eastern Afri- 
ca, were brought into close and profitable commer- 
cial relations with his people. But the seas did not 
content him, and commerce by caravans was ex- 
tended to distant lands. 

Wherever his traders went they carried the fame 
of his greatness. He drew to his capital whatever 
could add to its strength or renown. The Queen 
of Sheba paid him a visit of state, and princes and 
embassadors from the greatest kingdoms waited in 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 11 



his ante-chambers. Departing from the simplicity 
of better times, he allied himself, by marriage, with 
perhaps every ruling family of the nations in inter- 
course with him. He organized an immense stand- 
ing army, importing horses and chariots, at great 
cost, from Egypt. But enough — there is no such 
story of prodigal and wanton expenditure in any 
Eastern nation. 

How such an administration bred discontent 
among the overtaxed and oppressed laboring class- 
es; how it fomented corruption in every rank of 
society; how it sowed thick the seeds of revolution, 
we may not consider now. But in these old histo- 
ries are lessons and warnings that rulers and states- 
men of everv a^e mav consider with advantage. 

The rapid sketch I have given of Solomon's per- 
sonal and kingly history has indicated his wide 
departure, in many directions, from the pure theo- 
cratic constitution given to Israel as a nation, and 
also his own amazing moral collapse. For this his- 
tory shows us the man who was crowned king by 
the priest of God, who chose wisdom when Heaven 
gave him his choice, who offered the prayer of ded- 
ication upon the completion of the temple, giving 
himself to unlimited debauchery, and to the vilest 
rites known to the idolatrous and sensual East. 

Solomon made as full and complete a trial of 
the world's theory and plan of a human life as seems 
possible to man. He lacked none of the conditions, 
and he pushed his experiment to' the utmost in all 
possible directions. 

He had the personal and, I may say, constitu- 



12 Solomon's Experiment and Failure 



tional conditions. He had youth, beauty, health, 
vigor, temperament. So much is evident from the 
hints preserved in the history and in his own writ- 
ings. Besides these physical qualities and suscepti- 
bilities, he had mental endowments of the largest 
measure. So far as breadth and vigor of understand- 
ing, accuracy of intuition, keenness of perception, 
and knowledge of affairs and of men are concerned, 
none, says the record, who had gone before him 
excelled him. And it was said that no superior, in 
these respects, should succeed him. For large- 
mindeclness, clearness and quickness of mental ac- 
tion, for exquisite aesthetic sensibility, for all that 
we mean by preeminent mental endowments, there 
is no reason for doubting the intimation that the 
human race never had a more nobly endowed rep- 
resentative. If the expression be allowed, nature 
did her utmost in the production of Solomon. 

He had all helps in order to make a man. AVhat- 
cver training and culture was possible to that age 
he received. The tradition is that the Prophet 
Nathan had the care of his education. The state- 
ment of his varied accomplishments, written per- 
haps in his early days, before that sin had blasted 
his intellect and spoiled his life, presents a radiant 
picture of a nobly gifted and richly cultured man. 

"And God gave Solomon wisdom and understand- 
ing exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even 
as the sand that is on the sea-shore. And Solomon's 
wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of 
the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For 
he was wiser than all men ; than Ethan the Ezrahite, 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 13 



and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of 
Mahol; and his fame was in all nations round 
about." He was an ardent student of nature, and 
he made a record of his observations: "And he 
spake of trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Leb- 
anon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of 
the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and 
of creeping things, and of fishes." He was sage and 
poet: "He spake three thousand proverbs; and his 
songs were a thousand and five." 

If his lost writings were no better than his life, it 
is a mercy of Providence that they have perished 
from the sight of men. 

Moreover, as we have seen, he had all the adven- 
titious advantages which unlimited wealth and ab- 
solute authority can command, whether luxurious 
living, obliging friends, or popular favor. I say ad- 
vantages, because those who are trying, on a smaller 
scale, to repeat his experiment count them so. 

ETow this man, so circumstanced, made deliber- 
ately, persistently, and without let or hinderance, 
the experiment of the world's theory of human life. 
He has recorded the various processes of that ex- 
periment and their results — he has left us a minute 
and clear account of his discoveries. If he succeed- 
ed, then may smaller men imitate his example with 
fair hope of succeeding, in their measure, in his line^ 
of things. If he failed, then smaller men may save 
themselves the pains of the experiment, and the 
agonies of failure. 

Solomon failed — failed utterly, ignobly, misera- 
bly. He failed in every possible direction — as a 



14 Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



man, as the head of a house, as the ruler of a peo- 
ple. He covered his name with infamy; he left his 
family to chaos; he sowed among his people seeds 
of dissension that dismembered Israel, and finally 
blotted out ten of the tribes. The elements of all the 
woes that overwhelmed the chosen people were in 
the heritage of corruption and misrule which he 
left them. 

The chief service he has rendered mankind is 
that he left a volume of confessions in the book of 
Ecclesiastes that are perpetual warnings against the 
folly of sin. These confessions are summed up 
in the bitter wail: "Vanity of vanities, saith the 
Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity ! " What 
a monstrous and blasphemous misstatement! All 
is not vanity. His life was vanity. 

Since Christ came, the word "wisdom" has taken 
on new dignity — a broader and deeper meaning. 
Our Catechism is wrong; Solomon was not the 
wisest man; there is no true wisdom without grace 
and virtue. 

" Vanity of vanities — all is vanity." There is not 
a sadder sentence in the life of any man — in the 
literature of any nation. It is the last word of all 
pessimistic philosophy — a monster of unbelief, born 
of sin and despair. 

Let us contemplate the progress and results of 
Solomon's experiment upon life, as they exhibited 
themselves in him — in his character and conduct. 
The results were disappointment, satiety, vexation 
of spirit, exhaustion, brutal sensuality, moral degra- 
dation, skepticism, superstition, idolatry, remorse, 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



15 



a blighted life, and as to its final issues, a miserable, 
perplexing, unsolved doubt as to his eternal future. 

But this hasty glance, as one takes an instant's 
view of a landscape from a car- window, is not 
enough; the best lessons to us will require a more 
careful inspection. In pointing out the multiform 
failures of his experiments, I may indicate their 
causes— ^at least, their explanations. 

As both cause and effect, we must notice that self 
enters every thing he proposes — every thing he 
does. There is something unsatisfactory — be not 
startled, young men — in the brightest scene in which 
he appears — that night vision in Gibeon, in which 
the Lord said, "Ask what I shall give thee." Wise 
as his petition was, approved of Heaven as it was, 
one can hardly resist the impression that it is more 
expressive of the anxiety of a young king conscious 
of unfitness for his high duties than of the longing 
of a truly humble and penitent heart for the divine 
favor and mercy. His request is good and becom- 
ing, but incomplete, since it does not stress the 
greatest want of the human soul — the divine mercy 
in deliverance from sin and the kingdom of dark- 
ness. Nor is the prayer of dedication as instinct 
with evangelical sentiment as would furnish the 
best ground of hope and confidence in the future 
moral stability of the suppliant. Indeed, it may 
well be questioned whether there is any passage in 
his life, or any word in his writings, that furnishes 
proof that Solomon ever was, as we say, soundly 
converted — thoroughly regenerated by the Holy 
Ghost. For any sensible and patriotic youth, with- 



16 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



out religious experience, might desire wisdom for 
the government of a great people; while the litur- 
gical sublimity and excellence of the prayer of ded- 
ication are not beyond the reach of religious senti- 
ment, good taste, and high culture. 

We shall find the best materials for estimating 
the true character of Solomon in his writings. Of 
all his literary works, we have only the " Songs" — 
an exquisite wedding-poem of his ardent, poetic, 
unfallen youth; the book of Proverbs, the gar- 
nered wisdom of his middle life; and Koheleth, or 
Ecclesiastes, written in his later and more unhappy 
years. 

We cannot, after reading these confessions, avoid 
the conclusion that a subtle vanity marred his mo- 
tive in the erection of the sacred temple itself. 
(There is vanity in many a church and cathedral in 
Christian lands.) In his palace and city building, 
self-love and ambition are too manifest to allow a 
doubt. In the most refined gratification of his 
tastes, as well as in his most revolting indulgences, 
self is predominant. His language is: "I made me 
great works; I builded me houses; I planted me 
vineyards" — and in like phrase through the cata- 
logue of all his works. 

He seeks culture from the same selfish impulse. 
Self entered predominantly into his pursuit of 
knowledge. We talk much of the glory of culture, 
but there is no species of selfishness more subtle, 
delusive, or dangerous than the selfishness of cult- 
ure. There is a culture that hardens the heart and 
dwarfs the affections. It is more refined, but it is 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 17 



not less unrelenting than the selfishness of avarice 
itself. Throughout the whole record this self-seek- 
ing spirit shows itself. The trail of the serpent is 
in every garden and in every palace. In the account 
he gives of his true inner life — of his motives and 
occupations— there is little seen of a desire either 
to serve mankind or to glorify God. Certainly, 
after the first decade of his life, there appears little 
desire to be useful, and little or no spirit of worship. 
Indeed, God seems to have small place in the plans 
and occupations of his middle and later life. Com- 
menting on this deplorable feature in his character, 
Dr. Landels has well said: 

"Has David's son, who commenced life with so 
much promise, no place left in his heart for David's 
God? Does he not even think of him in his attempt 
to discover what will satisfy the cravings of his nat- 
ure? And what an obliviousness there seems to be 
to his own responsibilities! Were his great wealth 
and power granted him for no higher purpose than 
to minister pleasure to himself? .... Does he not 
see that, even in the monarch, self-restraint is better 
than self-indulgence, and that it ill becomes one so 
mentally gifted to impose no limits on the gratifica- 
tions of his fleshly desires? The selfishness of the 
man breathes in every line. He thinks of nothing 
beyond himself. There is no such question as, How 
shall I fulfill the purposes of my existence? how 
shall I glorify God and bless my fellow-creatures? 
but, How shall I get pleasure — pleasure that will 
satisfy every craving of my nature, and leave noth- 
ing more to be desired? The me-— the ego — has be- 



18 Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



come the center of his universe, and the divinity of 
his worship. This is the subject of every inquiry, 
and the end of every pursuit." 

On this line of self-seeking no man or woman 
ever did or ever can succeed in living happily or 
worthily. The eternal powers are against selfish- 
ness in every form and in every sphere. Law, om- 
nipotent and inexorable, enforces its decree; if 
men will not be warned, they shall be disappointed 
and crushed. 

Solomon's career furnishes a startling illustration 
of a vital but little understood truth: That self- 
seeking culture — culture without conscience — mere 
knowledge without worship, does itself tend to 
nourish and develop the lower side of our nature; 
that unsanctified culture, whether in philosophy, in 
literature, in science, or in art, has its normal and 
not infrequent end in some form of sensuality. Very 
often there are restraints and conserving influences 
that arrest and, in some degree, prevent such devel- 
opment. Remarking on these topics, Charnock 
says, with much force of expression: 

"Many are fond of those sciences which may en- 
rich their understandings and grate not upon their 
sensual delights. .... In those studies that have 
not immediately to do with God, their beloved 
pleasures are not impaired; it is a satisfaction to 
self without the exercise of any hostility against it." 

Lord Bacon has admirably delineated the charac- 
teristics of mere knowledge-seeking without refer- 
ence to the great ends of worship and usefulness: 

"The mistaking or misplacing of the last or far- 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 19 



thest end of knowledge is the greatest error of all the 
rest. For men have entered into a desire of knowl- 
edge, sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquis- 
itive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds 
with vanity and delight; sometimes for ornament and 
reputation ; and sometimes to enable them to obtain 
the victory of wit and contradiction ; and most times 
for lucre and profession; but seldom sincerely to 
give a true account of their gift of reason, to the 

benefit and use of men I would advise all 

in general that they would take into serious con- 
sideration the true and genuine ends of knowledge; 
that they seek it not either for pleasure, or conten- 
tion, or contempt of others, or for profit, or fame, 
or for honor and promotion, or such like adulterate 
and inferior ends; but for merit and emolument of 
life, that they may regulate and perfect the same in 
charity." 

In King Solomon's confessions we find almost in 
a breath such utterances as these: "And I gave my 

heart to know wisdom I said in mine heart, 

Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth; therefore 

enjoy pleasure I sought in mine heart to give 

myself unto w 7 ine, yet acquainting mine heart with 
wisdom." In immediate connection with these state- 
ments we have the recital of his great works in 
architecture, and in floral and horticultural orna- 
mentation. The following statement also: "I got 
me servants and maidens, and had servants born in 
my house; also I had great possessions of great and 
small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before 
me." The connection shows that these " posses- 



20 Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



sions" were part of his appliances for luxurious and 
sensual living. 

The royal confessor goes on: "I gathered me sil- 
ver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and 
of the provinces: I got me men-singers and women- 
singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as 
musical instruments, and that of all sorts." 

It hardly requires critical learning to understand 
all this. Thinly veiled by elegant euphemism, it is 
the confession of a life devoted to gross though 
splendid licentiousness. Let it be insisted on and 
remembered that mere culture — culture without 
conscience and without God — nourishes into despot- 
ic life the lower side of human nature, and finds its 
fruition in sensuality. 

And all history, if it be inquired into, confirms 
the lesson taught by Solomon. To mention but a 
few instances: Ancient art reached its fullest tri- 
umphs in the period of the deepest moral degrada- 
tion. Exhumed Herculaneum reveals to the aston- 
ished gaze of our times the most exquisite art 
dedicated and indissolubly wedded to the most 
monstrous and revolting sensuality. Modern Ro- 
man art touched its highest point during the mag- 
nificent reign of Pope Leo X., but it was also the 
period of the most degrading profligacy. And is 
it not true of our own times that the centers of art 
are also the centers of licentious sentiment and 
practice? And often the world is shocked by indi- 
vidual instances where godless culture the most 
splendid unites itself with animalism the most con- 
summate. Let it not be forgotten that Solomon 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



21 



tells the story of his knowledge that was without 
God, of his art that was without conscience, and of 
his sensuality that was without shame, in the same 
paragraph of his confessions. And always, and in 
every age, these are the natural associations and 
issues from the Goethean theory of life, whether 
lived in Jerusalem or both taught and lived in 
Weimar. 

Solomon's life, as set forth in his confessions, not 
only illustrates the truth that sensuality ends in 
wretched satiety as to the bodily appetites, and 
enfeeblement and degradation of the mind, but 
that it leads to skepticism as to our beliefs and con- 
victions. He did not, it seems, deny absolutely the 
existence of God; but his life of self-indulgence, 
issuing in disappointment, despair of happiness, and 
disgust at life, did lead to a blank and dreary skep- 
ticism as to the beneficent and overruling providence 
of the Almighty Father. 

In one breath he tells us: " Whatsoever mine eyes 
desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my 
heart from any joy." In the next verse he says: 
" Then I looked on all the works that my hands had 
wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do; 
and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, 
and there was no profit under the sun." His im- 
patience waxes into intolerance. Hear him, raving 
like a madman, in his estimate of life and its re- 
sults: "Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth 
to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why 
was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, 
that this also is vanity. For there is no remem- 



22 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



brance of the wise more than of the fool forever; 
seeing that which now is in the days to come shall 
all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as 
the fool. Therefore I hated life, because the work 
that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me; 
for all is vanity and vexation of spirit." 

Consider such wailings and ravings as these: "I 
hated all my labor which I had taken under the 

sun Therefore I went about to cause my 

heart to despair of all the labor which I took under 
the sun." 

Now and then we have a momentary reference to 
God, as if an echo from his early days, a recognition 
more formal than hearty. But he falls again into 
his querulous and heartless unbelief. He seeks ref- 
uge from the lashings of conscience in false philos- 
ophy; he falls into a dreary pantheism, looking 
upon all nature as dominated by a blind and relent- 
less law, or fate. Hear him, in words that pagans 
might have blushed to use : " For that which befall - 
eth the sons of men befalleth beasts; .... as the 
one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all 
one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence 
above a beast; for all is vanity." This is the creed 
of our modern materialism. 

He contemplated the sufferings and oppressions 
of men as a sentimental observer, and concludes 
that there is help neither in God nor in man. His 
conclusion sinks into materialism, and is atheism, 
except the name. " "Wherefore I praised the dead 
which are already dead more than the living which 
arc yet alive." And this praising of the dead takes 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 23 



no glimpse at the thought of the felicity of the good 
who have entered into rest; he comprehends all — 
the bad with the good. It is a fit creed for suicides. 

"What despair of life is in these petulant words: 
"Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, 
yet hath he seen no good; do not all go to one 
place?" A man with such an experience, with 
such thoughts of life, and such despair of God, 
comes to hate his kind. Misanthropy is simply a 
symptom of skepticism. "Behold," says this un- 
happy and depraved man, "counting one by one, to 
find out the account ; which yet my soul seeketh, 
but I find not: one man among a thousand have I 
found; but a woman among all those have I not 
found." 

How monstrous, and false, and mean are such 
sentiments and such words ! This burnt-out deb- 
auchee, who had surrounded himself with a herd 
of bad women, pronouncing a sweeping verdict 
against female virtue! And always the man who 
entertains such sentiments and employs such lan- 
guage about women is base, and false, and mean. 

Solomon's skepticism has a moral rather than an 
intellectual origin. It is not the perplexity of an 
earnest searcher after truth; it is not the sorrow of 
a baffled mind that cannot find it; it is not the 
despair of a lofty soul wrestling in vain with the 
problems of the universe. His unbelief did not 
grow out of ignorance; nor was it due to lack of 
evidence. Like much of the unbelief of our times, 
his skepticism was a matter of the heart rather than 
of the head. To such a man as Solomon was for a 



24 Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



great period of his life, a firm, abiding, and saving 
faith in the divine goodness and justice, truth and 
mercy, was impossible. The man who deliberately 
puts pleasure in the place of dutj r will construct a 
creed low enough for the level of his practice. The 
man who deliberately says to his lower nature, " Go 
to now, I will prove thee with mirth; therefore en- 
joy pleasure," will presently say, "There is nothing 
better for a man than that he should eat and drink, 
and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his 
labor." And on such a creed a man may build the 
most beastly materialism in life and morals. No 
man maintains a high standard of morals whose 
practice is low. The man who lives for pleasure 
only will conclude that pleasure is indeed the chief 
good, and will create a creed that rules out whatever 
principles interfere with his desires. No such man 
feels easy while the thought of God is in his heart. 
"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." 
And he said it because the thought of God made 
him unhappy. 

In such a life as Solomon lived the descent pro- 
ceeds with accelerating momentum. The low prac- 
tice seeks a lower creed; the lower creed allows and 
encourages a lower practice. Below every deep 
abyss of such a fall "a lower deep" still waits. 

Skepticism like Solomon's naturally leads to su- 
perstition. As always happens to such men, if they 
go far enough, there comes after awhile more than 
lie sting of conscience for wrong -doing; there 
comes also the pains of disappointment. The de- 
sire for pleasure often outlives the capacity of grat- 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



25 



ification. Thousands have suffered Solomon's ex- 
perience: "I said of laughter, It is mad; and of 
mirth, What doeth it?" The time came when his 
great works — his palaces, his pleasure-gardens, his 
"men-singers, and women-singers, and delights of 
all sorts" — were delights no more. He who had 
denied himself no pleasure came to a time when he 
hated it all. Here is his estimate of results : "Then 
I looked on all the works that my hands had 
wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do; 
and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, 
and there was no profit under the sun." 

We need not doubt it, chaos comes into such a 
soul as this. Such a man becomes a pessimist be- 
cause he recoils from himself. From his sky the 
stars go out. Such a mind makes all existence like 
itself. Of such a mind we may say, in the sad and 
terrible words of Shelley, who himself sounded the 
depths of doubt and despair: 

The curtain of the universe 

Is rent and shattered, 
The splendor- winged worlds disperse, 

Like wild doves scattered. 

But let us remember that desire does not go out 
w T hen despair comes into the soul. When Solomon 
"despaired of all his labor which he took under the 
sun;" when his vexation at keen and utter disap- 
pointment led him to "hate life" itself, his desire 
of happiness only asserted itself with more eager 
cries. The subsidence of passion, or the exhaustion 
of nature, brings not to the human soul even the 
quietude of indifference. If there be nothing else 



26 Solomons Experiment and Failure. 



left, the hungry soul will turn and feed upon itself. 
Every pulse of passion may be starved and bleached 
out of an emaciated body, without bringing one 
moment's rest to the mind, 

which is its own place, 
And in itself can make a hell of heaven, 
A heaven of hell. 

And, fearful to contemplate, there is no reason to 
believe that death itself will bring 1 release from the 

CD 

tierce hunger of the soul that has fed on husks. 
Satan needed not a fleshly form to be the victim of 
contending passions, insatiable desires, and keen 
despair. 

It is a just and profound remark of John Fos- 
ter's: "All pleasure must be bought at the price of 
pain; the difference between false pleasure and true 
is just this: for the true the price is paid before you 
enjoy it, for the false after you enjoy it." 

Solomon paid after he enjoyed, nor did he dis- 
charge his debt. 

Xow, what was for him the natural outcome of 
such a course of life? This worn-out man, prema- 
turely old, disgusted with all his works, hating life 
and doubting God, what was the natural thing for 
him to do, surrounded by an army of strange wom- 
en from idolatrous countries? Manifestly to fall 
into idolatry. Molech, Chemosh, Ashtoreth, nat- 
urally came after his departure from God — came 
after a life of sensual indulgence that issued in dis- 
gust and exhaustion, came after a life that brought 
him down to the low level of their abominations. 
He was like the crew of a burning ship who must 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 27 



choose between the cruel fire and the cruel sea. He 
had ceased to call upon the God of his father Da- 
vid; in his mortal agony and fear, he cried to the 
beastly gods his strange wives had brought him. 
"For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess 
of the Zidonians; and after Milcom, the abomina- 
tion of the Ammonites." 

He had proved the folly of mirth, the vanity of 
wealth, the mad vexation of indulgence; he had 
tried to find relief in skepticism, but his doubts 
were like the shifting seas, they could not let him 
rest. As Dean Howson says: " Unbelief, when it 
has become conscious of its weakness, is often glad 
to give its hand to superstition." 

Young men, we have Solomon's experiment and 
its results before us. We have the history and his 
confessions. What do you think of it? 

The experiment was made deliberately, thorough- 
ly, with every possible advantage. And it failed — 
failed utterly and ignobly. We have his estimate 
of it: " Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, all 
is vanity. 7 ' We have God's estimate. Our Lord 
Jesus, who knew what was in men, made but one 
allusion to him; he preferred the lilies of the valley 
to all his pomp and glory. St. Paul, who mentions 
the dull giant Samson among the men of faith, 
does not mention great Solomon at all. 

This history illustrates what we should all keep 
ever before us, that no man can set limits to sinful 
indulgence. Solomon deliberately and distinctly 
tried to do this. He said: "I sought in mine heart 
to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart 



28 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



with wisdom." This is universal experience. No 
man ever died a drunkard who did not begin toying 
with wine with the distinct purpose to set limits to 
his indulgence, and with the confident belief that 
he could easily do it. No man ever died a worn- 
out debauchee who did not, at the first, believe that 
he, and not his passions, was master. 

Men know not the depths and force of the under- 
currents of human nature. Woe betide the bold 
diver who is caught in the under-tow that leads out 
to the sea! Sin indulged is a very devil-fish that 
seizes the cable in its horrid jaws, shuts its eyes, and 
makes for unfathomed deeps. 

What an opportunity this man trod under his 
feet ! Consider how great were the possibilities to 
him when he ascended the throne. All Israel was 
glad, and Heaven sanctioned the joy of the people. 
He was " anointed with the oil of gladness above 
his fellows." What a man in wisdom and in saintly 
grace he might have been! What a ruler of his 
people! What a light to all the nations of the 
earth! His rising sun gave promise of a golden 
and perfect day. Before it reached its meridian it 
was obscured with dark and fateful clouds. It hast- 
ed to its setting in the blackness and mutterings of 
coming tempests. Whether there was any light 
beyond those clouds we cannot tell. All we know 
is that as he approached his end he seems, as the 
shadows fall upon him, to awake from his madden- 
ing dream. He talks solemnly of the fear of God 
and of the judgment- day. Whether all this is 
more than the dying exhortation of a doomed 



Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 29 



man, going to his fate without hope, we do not 
know. 

The closing chapter of Ecclesiastes is exquisitely 
tender and beautiful. It checks the foolish ardor 
of youth, and shames the vanity of selfish ambition. 
He paints old age as it was never painted. But, as 
to Solomon himself, there is no assurance in these 
sad last words that he recovered his lost purity, or 
that he found peace and salvation in the pardon of 
his sins. Speculation is idle and hurtful here. We 
see him as a dismantled ship quivering on the con- 
tending billows; mists, and clouds, and darkness 
settle about it and hide it from our eyes; a flash of 
lightning reveals it in painful distinctness for a mo- 
ment; then we see it no more. Whether it ever 
reached the desired haven is known only to the 
dwellers beyond. 

But his words are wise and his exhortation time- 
ly: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole mat- 
ter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this 
is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring; 
every work into judgment, with every secret thing, 
whether it be good, or whether it be evil." " Remem- 
ber now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while 
the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, 
when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." 

We leave Solomon as one turns from the burial 
of a man who, with vast possibilities, failed of suc- 
cess, died and "made no sign." Let us be warned 
by his experiment and its failure. 

If you will go to the Teacher who is wisdom, 
truth, and grace, he will show you the good and 



30 Solomon's Experiment and Failure. 



right way. Make him your friend. To the culture 
of books add the culture of grace. Seek the spirit 
of Christ; this only is your safeguard and your de- 
liverance. Imitate his example. And be sure that 
no loftier promise was ever offered to the hope of 
men than that word of heavenly comfort and inspi- 
ration: "We know that when He shall appear we 
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 



LOVICK PIERCE: 17854879, 



[OXFOKD, NOV, 20, 1879,] 



UR Methodism never mourned at such a fu- 



\_J neral as that of Lovick Pierce; it never can 
again. For he was born six y ears before John Wes- 
ley died; he became an itinerant preacher during 
the Christmas of 1804; he was the contemporary of 
Asbury and McKendree; he lived through three 
generations of men; he w^as a preacher of the gos- 
pel of the Son of God for seventy-five years. 

When he mounted his horse in January, 1805, 
and bade good-by to his mother for the wide reaches 
of the great Pedee Circuit in South Carolina, there 
were but five or six millions of people in the United 
States; when he died in Sparta, Georgia, on Sunday 
evening, November 9, 1879, there were, it is sup- 
posed, fifty millions. When he began, the Indians 
were in Middle Georgia; when he died, our white 
population — ever pushing westward — had stretched 
its advancing lines from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
Ocean. He was before steam-boats, railroads, and 
telegraphs — to say nothing of more recent and won- 
derful inventions. During his life-time the most 
notable helps to the progress and civilization of the 
human race have come into use. 

When he entered upon his career, Methodists 
were counted by thousands; when he entered upon 




(31) 



32 



Lovick Pierce. 



his reward, they were counted by millions. There 
are more Methodists among the heathen nations to- 
day than were in England and America when As- 
bury gave him his first appointment. There are 
more Methodist preachers in Hindostan to-day than 
were in America when Lovick Pierce was " admit- 
ted on trial. " The Wesleyan Conference in the Fiji 
Islands (and the Fijians were cannibals when he was 
in his prime) is nearly as strong in numbers as was 
Methodism in the United States when he entered 
its ranks. 

It may be mentioned with propriety also that the 
greatest conservative and aggressive movements 
of the Church have had their beginning, or have 
taken on their strength, since our translated father 
began to preach. The great Bible Societies, the 
great Missionary Societies, have all been organized, 
or developed into power, since Providence "gave 
Lovick Pierce to the human race." Within his 
time the Church has begun to realize her educational 
function. That wonder of modern religious life, the 
Sunday-school movement, has grown into a power 
that promises untold blessings to the world since he 
entered upon his career. 

He lived through the "heroic days" of the first 
period of American Methodist history; he lived 
through the period of its more perfect ecclesiastical 
organization; he lived to see Methodist churches 
and missions planted on every continent and every 
chief island of the sea; he lived to see universal 
Methodism — counting millions in its ranks — gath- 
ering up its God^given energies for its grandest 



Lovick Pierce. 



33 



achievements ; he lived to see, as in apocalyptic vis- 
ion, the gray lines of light in the East that foretell 
the dawn of the brightest and divinest day in its 
history. 

Full of years, full of honors, trusted and loved 
through three generations, revered by millions of 
godly men and women, respected by his fellow-citi- 
zens of every class, prized of Heaven and ripe for 
the harvest, he has "fallen on sleep," he has been 
" gathered unto his. fathers" in the "sure and cer- 
tain hope of the resurrection of the dead. " 

There is sadness in our Methodism, but not lamen- 
tation. A mighty man and a prince in our Israel 
has been buried, but mingled with our tears are 
songs of victory. The noblest thing that a man 
can do is to live and die in the Lord. And, he, 
whom they laid to rest in Columbus, November 12, 
had "fought a goodfight;" had " kept the faith," 
had "finished his course." He has entered into 
rest; he has won his triumph; he is in heaven to- 
day — at home with his Lord, among the redeemed, 
a crowned victor forever. 

If the Senate of Rome voted Csesar a triumph 
when he returned victorious from his wars, shall 
not the Church of God — although bereaved of a 
trusted leader — rejoice on the day of his triumphant 
entrance into the city of God, midst the acclama- 
tions of the heavenly hosts? What welcomes he 
has received! How many thousands helped to 
heaven through his ministry, how many veterans — 
his companions in arms— who toiled and suffered 
and triumphed with him through the campaigns 



34 



LOVICK PlEROE. 



of three-quarters of a century, but who outran 
him to glory, have received him into the shining 
company above! While we meet to pay the im- 
perfect tribute of our respect to his greatness and 
goodness, what high discourse he holds with the 
immortals! 

No Christian heart can repine when we think of 
him — who so lately lingered upon our dull shores 
"in age and feebleness extreme 3 ' — as now holding 
sweet converse with the redeemed, as now joining 
his voice in the swelling song of the " multitude, 
which no man can number, of all nations, and kin- 
dreds, and people, and tongues, that stand before the 
throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white 
robes, and palms in their hands, and cry with a 
loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sit. 
teth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. " 

For our instruction and edification, let us consider 
carefully, though imperfectly, the story of his life 
and labors, the secret springs and motives of his 
private walk and public ministry. 

Lovick Pierce — "father of Methodism in Geor- 
gia" — was born in Halifax county, North Carolina, 
March 24, 1785; he died in Sparta, Georgia, at the 
home of his eldest son, Bishop George Foster Pierce, 
on Sunday, November 9, 1879, at six and a-half 
o'clock, just as the church-bells were ringing for the 
evening service. To tell all that comes between 
these dates would require a great volume. We 
must content ourselves with brief consideration of 
some of the leading facts of his life and the salient 
points of his manifold character. 



Lovick Pierce. 



35 



HIS BIRTH AND BRINGING UP. 

Some ten years ago he wrote a long letter con- 
cerning his early life and development to his well- 
beloved friend, the lamented Dr. Edward H. Myers. 
What I shall read to you at this time, concerning 
his early days, I have copied with that letter before 
me. Of his birth and bringing up, he writes: 

"I was born in Halifax county, North Carolina, 
March 24, 1785, but brought to South Carolina, I 
think, in 1788, and brought up in Barnwell District, 
on Tinker's Creek, twenty-three miles east of Au- 
gusta, Georgia. My father resided on the same sec- 
tion of land from 1788 till 1804, when he removed 
to Georgia. I was the second child, my brother 
Eeddick — of precious memory — being two and 
a-half years older than myself. It being a very re- 
markable circumstance, I will mention the fact that 
during this period, with a family of ten children, 
there was never a case of sickness, except three 
agues that I had. Nor was there a death among 
us, nor a dose of medicine taken." 

He came of "good human stock," Of his parents, 
he says: 

66 My father and mother were sprightly and affa- 
ble — cheerful and happy. They were of that class 
of poor people whose views and feelings on points 
of propriety always belonged to the higher order of 
aspirations. From them we inhaled only pure and 
lofty aspirations, in so far as incentives to every hu- 
man virtue were involved. They were models of 
industry. That labor is as honorable as it is neces- 
sary, was an axiom in our house. And the precious 



36 



Lovick Pierce. 



leaven of it has, in good degree, leavened our whole 
lump. There was never one of our blood that was 
constitutionally lazy. I am glad that I was born of 
working parents. Good human stock is best." 

HIS CONVERSION. 

He tells us of the influences that led to his conver- 
sion and to his becoming a Methodist. In a memoir 
of his brother Reddick, written in 1860, he savs of 
the relation of his family to Methodism: 

"My aunt "Weathersby had imbibed a love of 
Methodism in North Carolina, before her removal, 
and hailed their coming among us as a blessing. 
My father despised the race with bitterness. My 
mother, I think, like her sister, had a liking to Meth- 
odism. But not one of our family ever attended a 
Methodist service till August, 1801." 

In his letter to Dr. Myers, he says of himself and 
brother: 

" My acquaintance with Methodist preaching com- 
menced in August, 1801; my brother Reddick and 
myself went to hear the Rev. James Jenkins, of the 
South Carolina Conference. I joined the Church in 
the summer of 1802. The circuit was then under 
the care of the Rev. Thomas Darley, assisted by 
John Campbell. Campbell took me in, my father 
and mother, and brother and oldest sisters, having 
joined three weeks before, under Darley. It was 
a six weeks' circuit, Jenkins being presiding elder. 
I was converted in August, 1803 — Darley on the 
circuit." 



Lovick Pierce. 



37 



HIS EARLY ENVIRONMENTS. 

The sketch from which we quote gives us a vivid 
view of the young convert's moral and social envi- 
ronments on Tinker's Creek, in South Carolina, in 
1803. He says: 

"That portion of South Carolina in which I was 
brought up was only half civilized, as we call it, till 
after 1801. Then it was included in the old Eclisto 
Circuit, and was regularly supplied with Methodist 
preaching. Previous to that time there was very 
little preaching in all that region, and what there 
was was so mixed up with crude notions of elec- 
tion that sinners made a hobby of it. They parried 
all religious emotions with the plea, 'If I am to 
be saved, I will be.' But there were a few good 
people. 

" I have mentioned civilization, as we call it. I 
did so on purpose. In those days of semi-barbarian 
aspects, human life was estimated at its original 
w r orth. The people would fall out and fight. But 
the disposition to kill was unknown and unfelt. I 
do not think a case of killing, as we have it now, 
ever occurred during the first twenty-five years of 

my life But as to myself, while my parents 

were not openly religious, they were firm believers 
in religion, and recommended its morality to us, 
while they did not fully enforce it, especially in re- 
lation to keeping the Sabbath-day holy. We were 
restrained from all common labor, but not from 
sinful pastimes. if we had had Sabbath-schools 
then, I wonder how I should have relished them!" 

Of his early religious impressions, he says: 



38 , Lovicr PlEKCE. 



"Under all these unfavorable surroundings, my 
mind, to whatever agency it was due, was always 
deeply affected with religious impressions. My 
ideas of God were all pretty much of the terrific 
kind. I w r as indoctrinated with such views of God, 
all tending to make his power so terrible, that no 
room w T as left for the solace of sympathy and love. 
I think I always offered some sort of a prayer when 
I lay down. I was afraid to go to sleep without it. 
But it was always done as law. The idea of kneel- 
ing and praying formally I think I hardly had. 
My recollection is that I never saw T but one man 
kneel to pray till after the Methodists introduced 
it. And as to teaching children to kneel and say, 

Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray the Lord my soul to keep, 

I very much doubt if there was a family in the dis- 
trict that ever heard of such a thing." 

THE BROTHERS. 
The brothers, Keddick and Lovick, w r ere both 
"awakened to a sense of sin" under the ministry 
of the Rev. James Jenkins; both sought and found 
religion; both entered the traveling ministry to- 
gether. Their conversion produced a great sensa- 
tion among their acquaintances. Young men were 
not expected to be religious; the public profession 
of religion by these two well-known young men 
was a social and moral phenomenon hard to be un- 
derstood. The general idea that prevailed in that 
day was (alas! that it is not yet well out of the 
world) that " every young man had his basket of 



Lovick Pierce. 



39 



wild oat-seed to sow. And he had the sanction of 
public opinion to sow on." 

Dr. Pierce writes of the conversion of himself 
and brother: 

"The conversion of two young men, so conspicu- 
ous as my brother and myself, turned right away 
from a country-dance to a Methodist prayer-meet- 
ing, and both of us in for this new life, and no 
drawing us off, gave us great notoriety." 

HIS CALL TO PREACH 

There were some very remarkable circumstances 
connected with his call to preach. Let the story be 
told in his own words. He says to Dr. Myers: 

"I felt my mind impressed with a call to preach, 
or with impressions that I would have to preach, 
from my early boyhood days. This was the more 
noteworthy, because in my early times it was a rare 
occurrence with me even to see a preacher or hear 
a sermon. So that these impressions and feelings 
were not occasioned by familiarity and a fondness 
for preachers. These far-back feelings in my life 
frequently accumulated into such strength as, when 
I would be walking alone, to lead me to pass in 
thought words, as if addressing hearers, till I was 
overwhelmed with weeping. All this was the more 
'marvelous because, in so far as I can now retrace 
these tender emotions, they were without any fixed 
purpose to be a preacher, or even the desire to be 
one." 

Here is indeed matter for our study of the " way 
of the Spirit" with men. This stripling, working 



40 



Lovick Pierce. 



on a small farm in an obscure part of South Caro- 
lina, in the beginning of this century, who was 
without education or educational opportunities, who 
had rarely seen a preacher or heard a sermon, who 
was decently moral but without religious life — this 
boy, walking alone along woodland paths and for- 
getting what was about him, preaching "in thought," 
" as if addressing hearers, till he was overwhelmed 
with weeping" — is indeed a sight to arrest attention. 
"Was it not the Spirit that called young Samuel in 
the silent watches of the night, that moved the 
heart of John the Baptist in the wilderness? But 
what mighty stirrings of the Spirit of all life and 
grace were moving that young and untaught heart 
only He who called the unconverted fishermen of 
Galilee to "follow" him could read or tell. 

A CALL TO PREPARE. 

What followed, years after, may appear as very 
singular to some, but the experience is not uncom- 
mon. Returning to his own sketch, we will find 
sentences pregnant with meaning and rich in in- 
struction. We begin with his own word "there- 
fore:" 

"Therefore, after my conversion, when my mind 
became impressed with the idea that I must preach, 
I resisted the call for nearly two years, until my 
religious life and peace disappeared, very much like 
a process of drying up. I simply felt as if it were 
a punishment for disobedience. And yet, in my 
defense of myself, I went upon the ground of not 
knowing whether I was called or not, foolishly ask- 



Lovick Pierce. 



41 



ing for a 'sign.' And then again, taking the 
ground that even if I was called I was too ignorant 
to preach, and could not undertake it. I now think 
my idea of ignorance then arose chiefly from my 
illiterate condition. It never entered into my mind 
that a call to preach was, of course, a call to prepare 
for it. This teas then a sort of ingrained error in 
American Methodists, to wit: That a man was emphat- 
ically called to preach, fast as the Lord might lay hands 
on him. I say this was an error of American Method- 
ists; I do not think that English Methodists were ever 
much, if ever at all, affected with this low-bred enthu- 
siasm" 

AYe would give emphasis, if possible, to the clos- 
ing sentences of this paragraph. They are vastly 
important to young men contemplating the minis- 
try, and to the Church in considering their applica- 
tion for authority to preach. They express the de- 
liberate judgment of such a man as Lovick Pierce 
after nearly seventy years of experience, observa- 
tion, and reflection. Let the Church in her dealings 
with unprepared youths consider of them. And 
let such youths lay them to heart. 

THE BEGINNING. 

The following account of his providential induc- 
tion into the ministry will be read with profound 
interest by all thoughtful persons; and it will be 
read with tears by some who have had like tribula- 
tion of soul. 

"But after all my well-grounded apprehensions 
and withering fears," the sketch continues, "I was 



42 



Lovick Pierce. 



led out by the Spirit, and became a preacher. The 
folio wing was the process: 

"My pastor, the Rev. T. Darley, knowing my 
troubled mind, gave me, of his own accord, a license 
to exhort, and appointed me class-leader, at a new 
preaching-place, eleven miles from my father's. The 
people all concluded I was a preacher, and so an- 
nounced me. On my first appointment — it was at 
a private house — when I reached the place every 
hole and corner was a jam of people. 

"My father was a military officer — militia, of 
course — and my brother and myself had accompa- 
nied him to so many military parades (for in those 
days these militia-musters were as regular and near- 
ly as certain as the fulls and changes of the moon) 
that we had become widely known. The report 
that a son of Captain Pierce would preach at this 
place, on this day, was enough to bring out all the 
country. And so it did. 

"I was never in such a fright in all my life. I 
halted, tried to pray, wallowed on the clean grass, 
afraid to go back and give it up, and yet felt as if 
to face the crowd, as a preacher, was more than flesh 
and blood could endure. I cried to God for help 
and direction, until my faithful Watch announced to 
me I must either go in or give it up. I did go in, 
and that day sealed my destiny as to preaching. I 
read a lesson, sung a hymn, prayed and exhorted — 
all of which consumed only about thirty minutes. 
I left without dinner, because my mind was so agi- 
tated with my anomalous condition that all desire 
for food was totally gone." 



Lovick Pierce. 



43 



"TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL." 

There are many preachers who cannot read this 
account of the "process" by which the great preach- 
er was "led out by the Spirit" into the ministry with- 
out tender and grateful recall of heart-searehings, 
of wrestling with the prince of darkness,. and of 
divine deliverance in the days of their own weak- 
ness and temptation. Are they not all w r ho are to 
do great work for God and man "led up of the 
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the 
devil" for a season? 

Let me read again from his own account, and see 
what experiences he had when his first sermon was 
over. He continues: 

"And now my mind w^as plied with the very nat- 
ural temptation that I had done wrong, because 
my religious comforts w T ere all wasted, in my long 
refusal to obey my impressions to preach. Satan 
himself now admitted that there had been a time 
when I ought to have done it, but that now I had 
sinned away the Spirit and could not rightfully do 
it. In this perplexed state of mind — I remember 
it w 7 ell — I said in my heart, as unto God: ' I will fill 
my next appointment (for in my hurry and confu- 
sion I had left another), and if there is any evidence 
of Divine approval, I will never ask for another 
sign of assurance that it is my duty to preach.' I 
went at the time, and the Lord came down in mighty 
power, as in those days he did. In a few weeks 
nearty every family in the settlement were in the 
Church. I kept my promise, and have never 
doubted rny call to preach from that day to this." 



44 



Lovick Pierce. 



AS ITINERANT PREACHER. 

He was "admitted on trial' 7 in the South Caro- 
lina Conference that met in Charleston during the 
Christmas holidays of 1804, under the presidency 
of Bishop Asbury. His first appointment was the 
Great Pedee Circuit, South Carolina. His brother 
Reddick, admitted the same clay, was sent to Little 
River, in AVilkes county, Georgia. Lovick'a second 
appointment was to the Appalachee Circuit, includ- 
ing Greene, Clarke, Oconee, and Jackson counties. 
At Sparta, where he died, he was " admitted into full 
connection and ordained deacon" December, 1806; 
he was ordained elder at a Christmas Conference 
held in Greene county in 1808. To trace his ap- 
pointments from that time would be to recite the 
history of Methodism in Georgia for nearly three- 
quarters of a century. 

From that first exhortation " in a private house," 
of which he has told us, to his last sermon preached 
on Sunday, December 1, 1878, before the Xorth 
Georgia Conference in Marietta, Dr. Pierce preached, 
as he himself estimated, not less than eleven thou- 
sand sermons. 

And he preached gospel sermons; from the be- 
ginning to the end of his long and illustrious min- 
istry-, he could say, with St. Paul, " God forbid that 
I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, 
and I unto the world. " How constantly, how ably, 
how earnestly, how successfully he preached is 
known and read of all men. It is an essential part 
of Methodist history in this country; it would re- 



Lovick Pierce. 



45 



quire a volume to tell the story. For three-quarters 
of a century he magnified his ministry in cities, 
villages, and country-places — on circuits, stations, 
districts, missions, agencies — to the very best of his 
great ability, as God gave him opportunity. And 
no man of his time had more abundant opportunity, 
for God honored his servant's zeal. 

His last appointment was given him by Bishop 
McTyeire, at Thomasville, Ga., last winter. He was 
named "Conference Missionary." His Conference 
would not place him on the list of " superannuated 
men." He shrunk from it, and they delighted to 
please and honor him. 

MARRIAGE. 

In 1809, Dr. Pierce married Miss Ann Foster, 
daughter of Col. George Foster, of Greene county, 
Ga., a successful planter, a man of great force of 
character, and a devoted member of the Methodist 
Church. Forty-one years she was a help-mate wor- 
thy to be the wife of such a man as Lovick Pierce. 
Georgia and Methodism owe such a wife and moth- 
er as she was immortal honor. She died suddenly 
in Columbus, Ga., May, 1850, when her husband 
was returning from the St. Louis General Confer- 
ence. Without warning, while sitting in her chair, 
reading her Bible, she went to God. It was by 
her side — whose memory he cherished w^ith pure, 
knightly devotion — that a multitude of mourners 
laid the great preacher to rest, as the sun was set- 
ting Tuesday, November 11, 1879. 



46 



- Lovick Pierce. 



AS LOCAL PREACHER. 
Nine years after he entered the itinerant minis- 
try, Dr. Pierce located at the Conference which met 
in Fayetteville, North Carolina, January 12, 1814. 
During the few years of his location he studied and 
practiced medicine, to provide for his family in that 
period of meager salaries. But his zeal knew no 
abatement during his enforced retirement from his 
work as an itinerant preacher. How he magnified 
the office of a local preacher during this period the 
traditions of Middle Georgia faithfully tell. Change 
of relation did not change his zeal. When, during the 
war of 1812, he was drafted into the army and ap- 
pointed chaplain to the troops stationed in Savannah, 
he gave himself to preaching just as he did on cir- 
cuits and districts. 

AT GENERAL CONFERENCE. 

He was a member of the first delegated General 
Conference ever held in Methodism. It met in New 
York in May, 1812. His name does not appear 
among the delegates to the two succeeding General 
Conferences that met in 1816 and 1820. Doubtless he 
would have been elected had he not been ineligible 
by reason of his temporary location, for the Church 
never missed an opportunity to honor and trust him. 
He was a member of the General Conference that 
met in 1824, the first that met after his return 
to the itinerant ministry, and of every other till 
1844, when, at the memorable Conference in New 
York, American Episcopal Methodism became " two 
bands. ?? He was a member of the convention that 



Lovick Pierce. 



47 



organized the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1845, and of every Gen- 
eral Conference thereafter down to 1878. 

AS FRATERNAL MESSENGER. 

It is matter of notorious Methodist history that 
he was appointed to convey to the General Confer- 
ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church that met 
in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1848, the fraternal salutations 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. How 
that General Conference declined to receive the 
blameless messenger, how dignified and Christian 
was his communication to the Conference on leav- 
ing the city of Pittsburgh^-all this is matter of 
history. 

His connection with the recent movements to 
establish fraternal relations between these two larg- 
est bodies of American Methodists you have in 
mind. He was appointed chairman of the distin- 
guished delegation — the lamented Dr. James A. 
Duncan and the venerable Chancellor Garland be- 
ing the other members — that w r as charged with 
the fraternal salutations of Southern Methodism to 
the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, that met in Baltimore, May, 1876. 

It was matter of great regret to both Churches 
that Dr. Pierce — hindered by his infirmities — was 
unable to be present in person. The letter he ad- 
dressed to the General Conference was worthy his 
own character, the great Church he represented, 
and the great cause he sought to serve. No man 
in American Methodism welcomed the tokens of 



48 



Lovick Pierce. 



the sentiment of Christian brotherhood with more 
gratitude than did Dr. Pierce; these " fruits of the 
Spirit" in our common Methodism cheered his de- 
clining years. 

THE MANNER OF HIS DEVELOPMENT. 

We have reserved some glimpses of his methods 
of study, or of the history of his education, till this 
point in the address, for the reason that he was a 
student till the last. His education was never fin- 
ished; till late in life he w T as capable of new devel- 
opments and of new acquisitions. 

As to school advantages in his boyhood and youth, 
they were so meager that they enter into the story 
of his mental development only in this, that he pos- 
sessed the simplest implements of further research 
w T hen he left the old-field school-house. But it is 
plain, from his own account of himself, that when 
he entered the South Carolina Conference in his 
twentieth year, he had neither mental training nor 
mental stores. 

Let us remember that it is not the mental de- 
velopment of a scholar, a scientist, a literary man, 
that we are considering, but the development of a 
preacher. As a preacher, he read, observed, thought. 
With him the preacher was first; preaching dom- 
inated him from first to last, from the time that he 
wept under overpowering emotions in addressing, 
in his unuttered thoughts, imaginary congregations, 
to his last day, preaching was his uppermost thought 
and deepest study. Underlying this habit of thought 
and feeling was the deepest conviction possible to 



Lovick Pierce. 



49 



the human mind of his special and divine call to 
preach the gospel. He believed, to use his own 
words, in "the personal designation of some men 
to the ministry in the mind and purpose of God/' 
and that he was set apart by the Spirit of God to 
this greatest work to which human energy can con- 
secrate itself. He believed further — and he has left 
this opinion on record — that men who are divinely 
designated to the work of preaching and who refuse 
to obey the divine call "commit a sin unto death." 

Let us see him as he pictured himself when he 
began his work. He was eighty-live when he wrote 
of his early days : 

" My educational advantages were very limited, 
when I entered upon the work of preaching. They 
have never amounted to much in the way of gen- 
eral learning. The proof, however, of my mental 
structure I infer from my deep sense of the need 
of education and the native readiness with which I 
perceived all manner of irregularities in things vis- 
ible, and to which mind had been applied in any 
artistic sense, as in relation to things level, or per- 
pendicular, or straight. With me it was a natural 
necessity. I could but perceive all these imperfec- 
tions, and being compelled to see new things and 
new places daily — almost all of them out of proper 
square — it became an annoyance to me. But my 
view now is that mind is a unit — all of a piece — if 
perfect in its perceptive capacity. Hence it came 
to pass, when my duty called me in that direction, 
I found that, in some way, this perceiving capacity 
was operated on as readily through my hearing as 
4 



50 



Lovick Pierce. 



my seeing, and so bad language in composition, or 
preaching, and especially in the latter — where most 
I met with it — grated on some sense of mine, so as 
unpleasantly to affect me, and drive me to inquire 
after a better way, and to learn the philosophy of 
language. So that long before I knew any thing of 
grammar as grammar, when some blunderbus, with 
apparent pomp, would open his discourse with, 'My 
text are a copious subject,' it came over my feelings, 
even then, with a sense of shame and disgust. Un- 
der the embarrassing want of education, for awhile 
I undertook to improve my language by a close ob- 
servance of the language of the best speakers, and 
became greatly interested in the pleadings of the 
bar, and was, fortunately for me, my own judge 
of good speaking/' 

We have in this extract, we take it, a rare bit 
of mental history, and one that deserves the most 
thoughtful consideration. 

Let us remember that young preachers had not 
then a "Conference Course of Study." In the 
Minutes of the old Georgia Conference, the first 
germs of a course of study appear at that one Con- 
ference that Bishop Emory held in Georgia. And 
I am much inclined to believe that Dr. Pierce in- 
spired the request of the Conference that induced 
the good and scholarly Bishop to draw up the out- 
lines of a course of study for young preachers. For 
our improved methods we never will know how 
much we owe to the original and fruitful mind of 
Lovick Pierce. 

The fact is, he learned language almost without 



Lovick Pierce. 



51 



books, as he learned to be a preacher without teach- 
ers or models. His account of the method he em- 
ployed in learning the philosophy of correct and 
forcible speech reminds us of the Scotch Furguson 
learning astronomy while he watched his sheep un- 
der the starlight on the hills, and of Hugh Miller 
learning geology while he dressed stone in the quar- 
ries of Cromarty. 

Dr. Pierce would have been the last man to argue 
from his own experience that young preachers do 
not need thorough scholastic training. For nearly 
fifty years he gave his great influence to building 
"up our colleges. And it is worthy of mention that 
as a trustee of Emory College and of Wesleyan 
Female College he always stood up for the most 
thorough work, and for the highest standard in 
their curriculum. And it was never in his thoughts 
that he would not have been a greater and more 
useful man than he was if he had been favored with 
better training and richer stores in the outset of his 
ministry. He would have counted such a sentiment 
among the " low-bred enthusiasms " which he repro- 
bated so earnestly. 

HIS INDEBTEDNESS TO GEORGE DOUGHERTY. 

During his first year God sent him a wise friend 
in the person of George Dougherty, who was the 
only preacher of that day with whom he came in 
contact who had any marked literary tastes or at- 
tainments. Many of us have heard him speak with 
enthusiasm of this gifted and consecrated Irishman. 
Dougherty came to the young itinerant, hungering 



52 



Lovick Pierce. 



and thirsting after knowledge, as a gracious provi- 
dence. To how many young preachers has Lovick 
Pierce been a providence! (If I may be pardoned 
a personal remark right here, I will say that for 
twenty years I have owed him a debt of gratitude 
that can never be paid.) George Dougherty came 
at a crisis in his intellectual history. Here is what 
Dr. Pierce says of his early friend: 

"To an incidental remark of George Dougherty, 
made to me in the autumn of 1805 — my first itin- 
erant year, he being my presiding elder — I owe the 
first inspiration of an outspread of my mind into 
the regions ahead. He heard me exhort — not with 
my knowledge, but by lying in wait to see what he 
should say of me, I suppose. Being thrown to- 
gether at night, he asked me, 'Have you ever read 
Paley's Moral Philosophy?' I told him, 'No; I have 
never seen it.' To which he replied, 6 Get it, and 
read it, and it will make a man of you. But do n't 
you read it and think you are a philosopher.' The 
speech w T as brief, but it was enough. To be made 
a man of — and not in this sense, to think myself 
something while I was really nothing — was my ideal 
in desire." 

He lost no time in getting the book and studying 
it profoundly. It " unsealed the fountains." It set 
him to revolving the great moral questions which 
occupied him all his clays. We must not overlook 
his own reflections on the influence of this great 
work on his subsequent development: 

"The arguing of these questions in my mind — in 
so far as Dougherty's prediction has come to pass 



Lovick Pierce. 



53 



concerning me — made me the man I am, although 
it is a small one. And now suppose I had missed 
this advice and been led off* on some unprofitable 
speculation, .... does not any man, with any 
mental philosophy, see that my mental resources 
would have been impoverished, by the perpetual 
slavery of a one-idea delusion, instead of the free, 
untrammelecl investigation of moral science, upon 
the basis of God's indications of human compari- 
son and relationship? In my study of moral phi- 
losophy, I made it my stand-point to argue moral 
philosophy alone from the views of the divine will, 
given to us in God's revelation of himself to man. 
It has been my good fortune, small as the stock of 
my mental capital was, to do a very fair business on 
it, mainly, I think, because I ' went out and traded 
with the same.'" 

About this time another and very different book 
fell into his hands, his experience with which he 
tells us: 

"In my early times as an itinerant, there was lit- 
tle to inspire a young beginner in the way of liter- 
ary taste or attainments. All were alike unlearned 
in letters, save Dougherty. And, as might have 
been expected, ' Simeon's Skeleton Sermons' were 
all the go for awhile. Accordingly I made haste to 
get a copy; and it was well I did. The contempt I 
felt for the book, and for myself, when I waked up 
to the littleness of employing another man's mind 
to do my thinking and planning for me, was an- 
other upward step in my mental pathway." 

Against "skeleton sermons," ancient and modern, 



54 



Lovick Pierce. 



he enters his solemn and vehement protest. And 
nearly as strong is his protest against musty manu- 
scripts. 

PREACHING "OUT OF SEASON." 

One more salient point in the history of his men- 
tal development we must consider for a moment. 
He observed that many preachers were in the habit 
of excusing themselves from preaching "out of sea- 
son" on the ground that they had not had time to 
"study their texts." He says: 

"They had fallen into the idea that any subject 
they intended to announce must be studied just as 
an advancing boy would study his next lesson in 
grammar. I did not so understand it. I could not 
see why a man engaged in the regular practice of 
preaching should need more than ten or fifteen min- 
utes to prepare to preach from any common text, 
and these are the only sort a man of good sense 
will ever undertake to do common preaching from." 

Of his own plan, he says: 

"Instead of studying every text to see how it 
could be applied to the general scheme of Christian 
theology, I studied theology systematically." 

This was the great secret of his peculiar gift of 
powerful preaching on short notice; he "studied 
theology systematically." To use one of his own 
expressions, what he wanted, when his mind settled 
down on a text, was to have time to " put the text 
on its basis." He looked to the context — to what 
went before, to what came after; he considered 
what the doctrine of the text was; he rapidly ar- 
ranged the order in which he would discuss the 



Lovick Pierce. 



55 



topics it contained; and having previously studied 
the doctrine of the text, as a part of systematic 
theology, he was ready to preach it. It was the 
difference between a doctor who studies the symp- 
toms of each case only and one who studies the 
human body and disease in all their relatious; be- 
tween the lawyer who hunts up law for a special 
case and one who studies the great principles of 
law that must apply to all cases. 

A BORN PREACHER. 

If ever there was a born preacher, Dr. Pierce was 
that man. He had emphatically a preaching mind, 
a preaching heart, and a preaching temperament. 
I had almost said, and a preaching body, for his 
person graced the pulpit, and his whole physical 
make-up was admirably fitted for powerful preach- 
ing. 

His rapid and vehement delivery during the early 
years of his ministry nearly cost him his life. See- 
ing his error, he determined to reform and learn to 
speak naturally. It took him two years to learn 
the lesson; but he did learn it, and so thoroughly, 
that, for more than sixty years, he was perhaps the 
most easy and natural speaker among all his breth- 
ren. Indeed, he learned so fully the art of speak- 
ing and breathing that it became a sort of wonder 
that he could speak so long, so constantly, and, on 
occasion, so loud, without injury or even fatigue, so 
far as mere speaking was concerned. After he was 
seventy-five years old, he thought nothing of preach- 
ing two hours at a time for four successive days at 



56 



Lovick Pierce. 



a camp-meeting. At the close of the meeting his 
voice would be full, round, and smooth, still capable 
of its greatest exertions. 

*He loved to preach "in season and out of sea- 
son" — as one renders it, "conveniently and incon- 
veniently." He had little patience with men who 
stand in such fear of their reputation that they can- 
not preach without special preparation. He would 
preach before any congregation on five minutes' 
notice, if necessary. No one ever heard him de- 
cline preaching on the ground that he was not pre- 
pared. He held with Wesley and the men of his 
day that "a Methodist preacher should be always 
ready to preach and to die." And he was. 

It seemed very easy for him to preach without 
special preparation. Some years ago, he wrote out 
an able and elaborate treatise showing the methods 
of study that make such results not only possible 
but easy. Unfortunately for us all, the carefully 
prepared manuscript was destroyed by the Publish- 
ing House fire in the city of Nashville. 

But this much we know: He was always think- 
ing, and, as a matter of course, there was always 
something to say. We doubt whether, during the 
last sixty years, he ever turned over the leaves of 
his Bible to " hunt for a text." His mind was full 
of texts and themes. To the very last he was con- 
stantly "breaking up new ground." Time and 
again we have heard him discuss texts he had never 
handled before. Notably, after a spell of sickness 
and enforced abstinence from preaching there was 
sure to follow a crop of new sermons. 



Lovick Pierce. 



57 



Preaching was a holy luxury to him. He was 
never so happy as when in the pulpit, except, indeed, 
it was when he saw souls blessed under his ministry. 
Pulpit work was to him a sort of medicine. In his 
later years he would often drag himself wearily into 
the pulpit, preach an hour or two, and walk away 
erect and with elastic step. 

In the days of his prime — indeed, till he was past 
eighty — his voice was an instrument of marvelous 
power. Smooth, flexible, musical, ample, it was 
capable of the highest uses of sacred eloquence. 

A BIBLE BELIEVER AND STUDENT 

Dr. Pierce was emphatically a student of the Bi- 
ble. He believed it with an absolute, unquestioning 
faith, and he pondered its great truths with ever 
new delight. He knew the contents of the sacred 
volume beyond most men of his time. It was not 
the knowledge of mere memory; his preaching was 
not the recitation of a string of texts. Bible truth 
was " bread of life" to him. He fed upon it, di- 
gested it, assimilated it. It became part of his 
mental substance — bone and muscle, nerve and 
sinew. 

There was great variety in his preaching, but it 
was the variety of the Scriptures and of nature, and 
not of science, history, or literature. In his ser- 
mons and writings we recognize the Bible origin 
of his great thoughts. Like sandal-wood, their 
sweet fragrance betrayed the place of their growth, 
meet them where you might. So diligent a student 
of the Bible would, of course, " bring forth out of 



58 



Lovick Pierce, 



his treasures things new and old, 55 for the Bible 
contains as infinite variety as God's other great 
book, Nature, so deep, so high, and so wide. 

He deprecated the abject dependence on commen- 
taries which some preachers manifest. He listened 
to " authorities," but he did not give himself away 
to them. He honored critical learning, but he did 
not surrender his great Protestant right of " private 
judgment" to the masters of Greek roots and He- 
brew vowels* His creative powers were not stran- 
gled by the grave-clothes of " the Fathers," nor 
smothered by the weight of modern books, nor 
confused by the dissonance of conflicting opinions. 
What are known as " skeletons of sermons" he 
simply abhorred. He believed, aud with reason, 
that their use works the paralysis and death of all 
original, creative thinking -power. It disgusted 
him to see a man to whom God had given a good 
pair of legs walking on crutches. He himself used 
commentaries sparingly; he had no whimsical prej- 
udice against them; he did not seem to feel the need 
of them. As between a first-class work on system- 
atic theology and a first-class commentary, he would 
choose the first every time. 

EXPOSITION AND EXEGESIS. 

In the days of his power, he was counted, by good 
judges, the foremost expository preacher among his 
brethren. If we may make a distinction, sometimes 
overlooked, his preaching was expository rather 
than exesretical. His bent of mind inclined him to 
exposition rather than exegesis, and his method of 



Lovick Pierce. 



59 



study confirmed his original inclination. With 
what is known as "scientific exegesis" he was not 
familiar; indeed, he had no great love for this sort 
of work; nor did his early training, his mental 
habits, or his methods of study, fit him for it. 

He dealt less with the linguistic technicalities and 
niceties of his texts than with their great substan- 
tial truths. He did not believe that the wise and 
good God had given to his children a system of re- 
ligion and then locked all its treasures in an intri- 
cate and technical terminology that defied the com- 
mon sense of mankind. Without troubling himself 
with minute verbal criticisms, he brought out the 
great truths of the texts he discussed with breadth 
and power. He rarely took short texts; when he 
did, he " related them " to their context so as to give 
his great, broad mind scope and verge. He wanted 
the broad bay or the open sea to move in; the nar- 
row banks of a canal he could not endure. If we 
have " Great Easterns," we must have sea-room for 
them. They would destroy the canals could they 
move in them. But canals are very useful, and 
canal-boats should stick to them. What is called 
"topical preaching," with its triad of divisions and 
subdivisions, he did not relish. Yet he was emi- 
nently a preacher of doctrines; but the doctrine 
grew out of the text — the text was not sought out 
that it might sustain a preconceived theory of doc- 
trine. 



60 



Lovick Pierce. 



HIS SERMONIZING. 

There was nothing mechanical or artificial in his 
sermonizing. His sermons grew like great forest- 
trees in virgin loam — some of them like the Red- 
wood cedars of California; they were not built 
like brick-walls, by the mere accretion of discon- 
nected parts. They grew from a principle of life 
within ; they were evolutions from some great germ- 
thought that he found in his text. If they had, 
both as to their structure and character, the vast 
variety of nature, they also had its pleasing unity. 

To every man his own method, so it be his best 
method. " The tools to him who can use them," 
was a maxim of the great Corsican. If one man 
has a gift for landscape-gardening, or for arranging 
a parterre of flowers with pretty contrasts of color, 
we will not despise his gift. If one, in a thousand 
can grow a great forest with dense shadows under 
its lofty trees, brightened here and there with 
patches of green and sunshine — with its vast soli- 
tudes, rich in nature's treasures and musical w^ith 
nature's harmonies — we will not, if we are wise, dis- 
credit him because his trees are not trimmed into 
artificial shapes, nor planted with the exact meas- 
urements and precise order one may sometimes ob- 
serve in a public garden. 

There was logic in his preaching, but not logical 
formulae. Syllogistic bones did not show themselves. 
His arguments were not " articulated " after the 
manner of the " prepared" specimens the skeleton- 
fitters furnish, but after the manner of nature in a 
living, vigorous man. Joints there were, strong and 



Lovick Pierce. 



61 



supple — but the full muscle and the smooth skin of 
vigorous, healthy life concealed their protuberances. 

Of moral truths and their relations he had such 
intuitive perception that he did not often give the 
processes of his own mind in discovering them. 
He dealt with conclusions and applications rather 
than with premises. 

HIS BISCURSIONS AND PARENTHESES. 

He indulged himself, at times, in large discursions. 
Leaving the main channel, he would explore, for a 
time, the affluents of his themes. But there was 
little danger to him; he who sails the Amazon will 
hardly find shallow water in the great currents that 
make into it. But he never forgot his points of de- 
parture and landing. He knew where he was going, 
and, in his own way and time, he would return with 
renewed zest to the main lines of his discourses. 

Some of his parentheses were as long and involved 
as De Quincey's, but when the wide swing of his dis- 
cursive thoughts was accomplished, he would wind 
up the sentence or paragraph in harmony with its 
beginnings. The parentheses of some speakers are 
the dark places in their thoughts, where they do not 
understand themselves, and grope their way like the 
explorers of unlighted caverns; Dr. Pierce's paren- 
theses were bright as broad avenues flooded with 
light. Often they sparkled with refined wit, bub- 
bled over with chaste humor, or melted with pure 
pathos. 

The use of the pen — against which he warned his 
brethren — in his pulpit preparations would have 



62 



Lovick Pierce. 



corrected this habit. Whether it would have been 
a gain to him we cannot determine. Possibly it 
might have cramped him overmuch, and lost him 
freedom and power where it gained him directness 
and precision. But we are sure that young men 
will find it dangerous to imitate the great master 
too closely. The arm that can hurl a javelin with 
force may not lift a spear large as a weavers beam. 
Even David could not fight in the armor of King 
Saul. Better for him his shepherd's sling and the 
smooth stones out of the brook. 

PRACTICAL AND ORIGINAL. 

Dr. Pierce was not given to speculative theology. 
He dealt chiefly in the great practical doctrines that 
lie at the roots of religious experience and Christian 
ethics. And in this department he was a man of 
might, whose peer it would be hard to find. He 
brought out the great truths of a text and applied 
them to the conscience with rare power, sometimes 
with overwhelming force. 

His preaching was bold in its thinking; his mind 
made its own orbit, and he moved in it without fear. 
God gave him great powers of original thought, and 
he honored the Giver by both trusting and using 
them. He put his foot down firmly as on a rock 
where many gifted men would step cautiously, as 
if they suspected concealed quicksands to swallow 
them up. Occasionally he startled his hearers by 
the boldness and sweep of his statements. But it 
was the belief that he had Scripture under him that 
gave him such preaching courage. 



Lovick Pierce. 



63 



His absolute faith in the word of God gave an 
assurance to his preaching that idle hearers some- 
times mistook for dogmatism. But dogmatism, in 
the sinister sense of the term, was utterly foreign to 
his nature. He did not indulge it himself; he could 
not abide it in others. How could a man saturated 
with the sense and sentiments, the truth and spirit 
of the Bible, and who felt upon his soul the movings 
of the Holy Ghost, preach otherwise than with apos- 
tolic authority? 

He had the gift of original expression as fully as 
that of original conception. It would be easy to 
give hundreds of examples. For half a century their 
repetition has enriched many a fireside talk. And 
these unique, idiomatic expressions were coined when 
needed. He rarely repeated them. Some of them 
were as quaint as any thing in Bunyan or Quesnel. 
But there was the truth of nature in them all. 

THE POWER OF HIS PREACHING. 

It is difficult for this generation to understand 
what the old people tell of the power of his preach- 
ing in the days of his middle-life vigor. But the 
tradition is uniform as to his transcendent power 
over the human heart and conscience when the holy 
fire touched his lips and flamed out in his words. 
And there was always the indication of reserved 
power that deepened the impression he made upon 
his hearers. 

Upon one ever-memorable occasion he preached 
to a great congregation in Morgan county, Georgia, 
upon EzekiePs vision of the valley of dry bones. 



64 



LOVICK PlEPwCE. 



On and on he went in his argument, painting with 
words of fire the world's misery and its sins, till the 
listening multitude were appalled. They felt as if 
they stood at the base of Sinai, wrapped in clouds, 
quaking with thunder, and flaming with lightning. 
And then the preacher turned their gaze to Calvary, 
and he seemed to be transfigured before their eyes. 
He held up the cross as Moses held up the brazen 
serpent in the wilderness, and bade the people look 
and live! The great preacher held and mastered 
his congregation through four long hours of such 
argument and appeal as were perhaps never sur- 
passed. It is matter of history that nearly three 
hundred people were converted, and ascribed their 
awakening to that tremendous sermon. 

"We mention another instance of the power of this 
master of assemblies. In 1806 — the second year of 
his itinerant ministry — a great camp-meeting was 
held at Smyrna, not far from the town in which he 
died. We quote the account from Bishop McTyeire's 
sketch of Richmond Nolley — one of the first Meth- 
odist preachers who crossed the Mississippi, and 
who, after hard service, died alone in the swamps of 
Louisiana. Nolley was one of the converts of that 
camp-meeting. The Bishop writes: 

"An immense crowd, estimated at ten thousand, 
attended. It was impossible for them all to be 
seated under the arbor, so a strong young preacher 
was detailed to an opening near the camp-ground, 
there to preach to as many as might gather around 
him. Lovick Pierce stood upon the table and an- 
nounced his text, Rom. vi. 6 — 'Knowing this, that 



Lovick Pierce. 



65 



our old man is crucified with him, that the body of 
sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should 
not serve sin.' To get the attention of his promis- 
cuous assembly, the preacher began with rather a 
facetious description of the 6 old man;' and, having 
attracted his hearers, proceeded to give a shocking 
account of his conduct, crimes, and excesses. He 
then sent forth Moses, as the high-sheriff of the 
realm, who arrested him. Having described his 
trial and condemnation, he sentenced the old man 
to be crucified. Reared upon the accursed tree, his 
crucifixion was begun, when, suddenly, a young 
lady, as if pierced by an. arrow, ran weeping from 
the outskirts of the audience, and, falling near the 
table, cried for mercy, and entreated the prayers of 
those around. The preacher immediately stopped 
his sermon and called for mourners. A simulta- 
neous movement toward him followed. The people 
fell upon their knees, and groans, and prayers, and 
praise were mingled. This work continued through 
the remainder of the day and the succeeding night. 
Over one hundred souls professed conversion around 
that table." Nolley was among them. 

REBUKING. 

His power of invective, when he chose to strip 
hypocrisy of its phylacteries, was only equaled by 
the pathos of his consolations when he felt moved 
to "speak comfortably" to God's people. Popular 
vices, the inconsistencies of professors of religion, 
pride and vanity, unbelief and worlclliness, received 
no favor when they put themselves in his way. We 

5 



66 



Lovick Pierce. 



may say, without disrespect to his honored memory, 
that some of his most loving friends sometimes re- 
gretted that he did not, particularly in the later 
years of his illustrious ministry, more frequently 
preach upon the softer and more consoling themes 
of religion. When he did, he swept every thing 
before him. But so profound and life-long was his 
loyalty to the Church, so great was his holy jeal- 
ousy for her honor, so high was his ideal of what 
personal religion ought to be, so deep was his sor- 
row over the wounds dealt to the body of Christ in 
the house of unfaithful children, so pure and blame- 
less was his own life, that even those who sometimes 
wearied under his iterations, on the subjects that 
often engaged his thoughts, forgot their impatience 
in their tender love and profound veneration for the 
great and holy man who, at times, so sternly re- 
buked their failures and follies, their short-comings, 
and their sins. We can but believe that the ser- 
mons that were least relished, and the articles from 
his busy and fruitful pen that were least popular, 
will bear fruit now that he has passed from the 
sight and hearing of men. Thousands will be more 
devout because he told them of their faults, and be 
the better prepared to die because he rebuked their 
errors. 

We give one specimen of his power in rebuking 
covetousness. He was preaching on the sin of lay- 
ing up treasures on earth. He brought it home to 
his hearers as follows: 

"Go out and look toward heaven, and say : 6 God, 
a new year is beginning. We want wind, and rain, 



Lovick Pierce. 



67 



and sunshine, the regular order of the seasons, the 
fertility of the soil, the germinating quality of the 
seed, and all these in that harmonious adjustment 
of times and relations that will insure as a rich 
harvest and multiplied bags of cotton. God, send 
these, and health, and friends; for we intend to 
revel upon the good things of thy providence; but 
let it be distinctly understood that we do not intend 
to yield a single dollar to the support of thy cause 
in the earth, until we have feathered our nests to 
our own liking.' Attempt this if you dare; and 
you will feel that lightning ought to strike you be- 
fore you get through with your petition. And yet 
this is the plain English of w T hat you are doing!" 

A KINDLY HEART. 

There never was, in all our acquaintance with 
men or women, a more kindly, loving heart. In 
his personal intercourse in the thousands of families 
that counted it an honor to entertain him, he was 
as gentle and loving as St. John. Indeed, his gifts 
of intellect were only surpassed by his capacity for 
loving. Little children, that at his first coming to 
a house looked upon him with awe as they tried to 
realize his great age, and did realize the sanctity of 
his character, soon came to love him fondly. There 
was not a more beautiful thing in Hancock county 
than the clinging love for " old grandpa" of the 
" old Doctor's" descendants to the third and fourth 
generation. As Motley says of the Prince of Orange, 
we may say of Dr. Pierce, " When he died, little 
children cried in the streets." 



68 



Lovick Pierce. 



THE CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN. 

Ill his personal habits he was the embodiment of 
neatness and propriety. He had an inborn respect 
for the "fitness of things." He always looked 
" dressed; " during war times the home-made wool- 
ens of the Confederacy looked better on him than 
on anybody else. Of rude things, in speech or ac- 
tion, he was incapable. He was counted a model 
Christian gentleman in his intercourse with society. 
Men and women felt at home with him while they 
revered him. Among the lowly he was welcomed 
as a friend; among the rich and great his stately 
manners commanded admiration. His exquisite 
sense of propriety never forsook him and never de- 
ceived him. His personal bearing had something 
of the cultivated soldier in it; and there was some- 
thing of the soldier in his heart. Child-like in the 
sweet simplicity of his character, he was also one 
of the manliest of men. 

He eschewed the habit, which bad or ill-bred peo- 
ple cultivate, of gossiping idly about their neigh- 
bors' weaknesses. He never "took up a reproach 
against his neighbor." If evil rumors reached him 
they grieved him deeply, and were believed reluc- 
tantly. An indelicate word I never heard him ut- 
ter; a vulgar anecdote, I am sure, never, during the 
seventy-five years of his ministry, escaped his lips. 
His thoughts were clean as his speech was pure. 

PROGRESSIVE AND CONSERVATIVE. 

Although we despair of treating our theme as it 
deserves, we must mention some other traits in his 



Lovick PlEiiCE. 



69 



manifold character. He united in himself, in a 
marvelous manner, the instincts of progress and 
conservatism. On the vital points of Methodist 
doctrine and Christian experience, he stood by the 
"old paths" with the heroism of Leonidas and his 
Spartans, dying at the pass of Thermopylae. But 
in matters of Church polity he was ever ready to 
adopt new methods when convinced of their utility. 
The sweeping and radical changes inaugurated by 
our General Conference at Hew Orleans, in 1866, 
he not only contemplated without alarm, but favored 
as to their more important features. What he did 
not favor he w r as willing to try thoroughly, and to 
help, by earnest cooperation, to defeat his own pre- 
dictions and to reverse his own judgments. This 
leads us to say that his intellectual candor was in 
keeping with his moral sincerity. Conscience dom- 
inated his intellect as fully as it ruled his life. 

It was this candid, progressive spirit, united to 
great kindliness of heart, that helps us to under- 
stand one fact of his history that is quite anoma- 
lous. He had outlived every contemporary; every 
friend of his youth w r as dead; few acquaintances 
of his middle life remained; yet he gathered around 
him, through each successive generation, hosts of 
loving, devoted friends. In his ninety -fifth year he 
had the confidences of mere boys in the ministry. 
There was less isolation about him than any old 
man we ever knew. It was as beautiful as it was 
surprising. 



70 



Lovick Pierce. 



WHAT INTERESTED HIM. 

Ceaseless activity was the law of his mind. Called 
to his room on one occasion, in a Georgia city, we 
found him, while waiting over a clay, reading with 
eager interest a treatise on the Constitution of the 
United States. He was then eighty-two years old. 
New books, on themes that interested him, he read 
with zest. What we call "literature" did not in- 
terest him much; poetry he rarely read; works of 
fiction, never. The Church journals he read regu- 
larly and eagerly; but the stately review pleased 
him more than the lighter newspaper. The discus- 
sion of doctrine, the recital of experience, tidings 
from the field, caught his eye and enlisted his heart. 

The great enterprises of the Church found in him 
an ever-faithful and able friend. The educational 
work of the Church engaged his deepest and most 
unflagging interest. He was among the pioneers 
in the work of sanctified learning in Georgia. He 
was the first Agent, as his distinguished son was 
the first President, of Wesleyan Female College — 
the first of the kind and grade in the world. He 
joined his prayers with those of other fathers in the 
founding of Emory College. He was a trustee from 
the beginning of both these honored institutions. 
Xo man among us ever so nobly magnified the office 
of trustee of our institutions of learning. He made 
it a point of honor and conscience to be present 
every time at the regular and called meetings. He 
was present the first hour, and he remained to the 
last. There was never such a listener to school-girl 
compositions and school-boy speeches. Time and 



Loyick Pierce. 



71 



a^ain we have seen him sit through four hours of 
commencement exercises, shaming by his example 
,many younger men (may we be forgiven for our 
own short-comings!) who had not his patience or 
his fortitude. 

In the missionary movements of the Church he 
was profoundly concerned; he wept tears of delight 
when he read or heard of God's blessings on the 
foreign as well as the home missionary. He was 
the earnest advocate of the Bible cause, and was at 
one time the Agent of the American Bible Society 
in Georgia. He was among the first to see the 
power that was in the Sunday-school movement ; he 
gave it his whole heart: served its interests as agent 
for a number of years, and saw in its possibilities 
the dawning of millennial triumph. 

In a word, he gave his hand and heart to every 
good and noble cause that promised to bring glory 
to God or blessing to mankind. 

But the characteristic anxiety of his heart was 
this: That the Church would keep itself pure. Ho- 
liness of heart and of life was with him the supreme 
end of all preaching, and of all Church enterprise. 
He cared little for things that did not make men 
more Christ-like. 

f THE HIGH PROOF OF HIS SANCTIFICATIOM 

Dr. Pierce always preached the possibility and 
duty of higher religious experience than is common 
to believers. The characteristic of his own expe- 
rience was a longing for better things. He was 
never satisfied with his attainments. He <; hungered 



72 



Lovick Pierce. 



and thirsted after righteousness/" He could say 
with the psalmist, ; -As the hart pauteth after the 
water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, God I M 
He has, of late years particularly, urged upon us all 
the great doctrine of "holiness," " sanctification," 
" Christian perfection." While speaking of his own 
attainments with the most unaffected diffidence, he 
evinced this high evidence that he had experienced 
the great blessing; — he was not intolerant of breth- 
ren who did not agree with him in his statement 
of the doctrine. 

THE SECRETS AXT) LESSOXS OF SUCH A LIFE. 

Lovick Pierce M served his generation according 
to the will of God."'' He worked out the problem 
of his life according to the divine plan. He stood 
by the divine constitution; he built upon the divine 
foundation; he succeeded beyond any man of his 
time among us. In our Church and in our State 
he was the man of the century. Let us consider 
briefly the secret springs that moved him, and the 
mighty motives that inspired him. 

1. I mention first, as underlying and conditioning 
all that followed, a sound religious experience. To 
use his own words. " he was convicted of sin as well 
as for sin; he repented; he confessed his sins; he 
sought pardon through our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
a new heart by the • washing of regeneration.' He 
found pardon; he was converted ; born again; 6 cre- 
ated anew in Christ Jesus.'" 

2. One explanation of his character and work 
was his full and unquestioning faith in the truth of 



Lovick Pierce. 



73 



the gospel. He believed the Bible — all of it — as a 
child believes its mother. It was the man of his 
counsel — a lamp to his feet and a light to his path. 
It was to him God's word and will — the law of his 
life, from which there was no appeal. 

3. In his personal religious experience he had the 
" witness of the Spirit bearing witness with his own 
spirit that he was a child of God." No earthly 
misfortunes — no losses, nor afflictions, nor bereave- 
ments, cost him such grief as "grieving the Holy 
Spirit." He rejoiced and he was strong because he 
could say, " I know whom I have believed." There 
were, indeed, times — especially when his nervous 
system was shattered- by disease — when his sky was 
overcast with flitting clouds, that appeared sudden- 
ly but did not linger long. He had, it is but truth 
to say it, his moments of depression. These low 
tides of religious feeling did not originate in skep- 
ticism; doubts of God, his word, his providence, 
seemed never to enter his mind. The noisy and 
boastful declarations of our modern materialism did 
not disturb his serenity; they were no more than 
Chinese gongs and Bengal lanterns to his trained 
mind and steadfast purpose. There were moments 
of profound dissatisfaction with himself, and we 
rejoice that it was so. For he was as instructive to 
us all in his hours of depression as in his sunlit 
moments of pulpit triumph and spiritual ecstasy. 
He had not a grander characteristic than his stead- 
fast purpose to do his whole duty. His " eye " was 
"single," and his conscience and will true to Christ 
— the King of his soul and the Lord of his life. He 



74 



Lovick Pierce. 



was sometimes like a noble ship, tossed by storms 
and wrapped about with clouds, and that seems to 
the unskilled in navigation to have lost its reckon- 
ing. But through tempest and darkness the needle 
points straight to its star. So with our sometimes 
tempted but ever victorious father. He pressed 
straight on in his duty, whether joyful or despond- 
ent. He fully illustrated the great Wesleyan maxim 
that we must "trample under foot that enthusiastic 
doctrine that wq are not to do good unless our hearts 
be free to it." No wonder such a man, a few weeks 
before his departure, sent word to the Church, " I am 
just outside the gate of heaven;" that he said to a 
loving friend, when he was daily expecting his sum- 
mons to meet his Lord, "Tell my brethren that I 
am passing over the river of death) on the bridge 
of life, toll free." And so he did. 

4. We mention another marked characteristic of 
Dr. Pierce as a preacher. Gathering strength with 
his years, there was in his heart the love of souls 
for whom Christ died. He had compassion on souls ; 
he loved men as men, and as redeemed in Christ. 
He claimed for his Lord the entire race of man, and 
loved every one. As the old preachers used to ex- 
press it, he had on his soul the " weight and burden 
of souls." We have seen him tremble and shake 
under this Spirit-given consciousness. Woe to the 
Church whose ministers do not feel the " weight 
and burden of souls!" 

5. But if we had to express it all in a single 
phrase, we would say that the secret of his life — his 
personal religious life, as well as of his long and 



Lovick Pierce. 



75 



illustrious ministry — is this: " The love of Christ 
constrained hini." lie realized the great love that 
Christ bore to him. He read the story of the cross 
as it signified the price paid for his own redemption. 
The consciousness of the love of Christ laid hold 
upon him, apprehended him, possessed him, came 
into his heart with the " expulsive power of a new 
affection," and drove out from his thoughts, as 
Christ drove the traders from the temple, the love 
of the world. And out of this lov.e of Christ to 
him was born his deep, true love to Christ. Truly 
it is said, " We love him because he first loved us." 
Because he loved Christ, he loved to work for him. 
A few weeks before he was taken from us, he said 
to me, in speaking of some new and brighter views 
of divine things that had come to him, " I would be 
willing to die if I could finish that." Had it pleased 
God to move back the wheels of time, and place 
him, January 1, 1805, at his father's door, ready 
to mount his horse for his distant circuit, he would, 
the day he died, have gladly done it all over again. 

We do not overstate the case when we say that 
the impress of Dr. Pierce's character and work is 
upon all of our Southern Methodism, and preemi- 
nently upon the Methodism of Georgia. He has 
imparted somewhat that was wise and good of him- 
self to three generations of Methodist preachers and 
people. He will live in our children when we are 
dead and gone from among men. In this respect, 
his life is so exceptional and unique that those who 
do not know his history cannot understand the 
depths, and range, and permanence of his influence. 



76 



Lovick Pierce. 



I feel deeply how impossible it is to " draw to the 
life" the picture of this true teacher, friend, and 
father of us all. What Tennyson wrote of the 
Prince Consort we may write of Lovick Pierce — 
with one exception : 

"We have lost him : he is gone ; 
We know him now: all narrow jealousies 
Are silent ; and we see him as he moved, 
How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise, 
With what sublime repression of himself. 

I say, with one exception, for there were no " nar- 
row jealousies" as toward him — at least none for a 
generation before his departure. Should I not add 
a second exception, since we have not, in the deep 
and true sense of things, "lost him 7 ' at all? His 
name and fame, his work and influence, are still 
ours, and will be our children's after us. 

As to ourselves, we have the memory of his name, 
and his deeds, and the splendor of his example. 

He walked with God; so may we all. He loved 
the Church; so should we all. He gave himself 
unreservedly to his duty; so ought we all to do. 

Columbus — the city he loved so well — honored 
itself in the burial of its friend and benefactor. 
The multitude that followed him to his rest paid a 
splendid tribute to personal character. His coffin 
and his grave, as was fitting, were covered with fair 
white flowers and sprigs of evergreen. It was meet 
that such a hero and conqueror should be buried 
with garlands about him. 

There w T ere some beautiful coincidences in his 
death. His soul departed as the church -bells 



Lovick Pierce. 



77 



were calling the people to the house of God. For 
nearly three hours he had not spoken. The sweet 
tones of the evening-bells seemed to catch his ear 
for an instant; he made his last deliberate muscular 
effort; the old habit came upon him strong; with 
a great exertion he placed his hands as in the 
attitude of prayer. And God heard him. Before 
the sound of the bells had died away, the songs of 
the ransomed and the music of angelic harps had 
filled his soul. 

We can but notice the coincidence in our long- 
delayed winter and his greatly prolonged life. It 
was near the middle of November, but the songs 
of the harvest had not died away, and the woods 
and fields were still glorious in scarlet, and purple, 
and gold. He lived among men for nearly one 
hundred years, but he was not like a tree stripped 
of its foliage — naked, bare, and cold under wintry 
skies. His faculties of intellect and affection were 
marvelously spared to him, and when he died the 
reapers were still gathering the harvests of his 
fields, and there was only the autumn splendor and 
ripeness to tell us that the summer of his life was 
over and gone. 

This year of languishing has been a year of use- 
fulness. Many lessons of wisdom have been given 
and received in his sick-room, and from it have 
gone forth, through the religious press, many use- 
ful and comforting exhortations. As he lay on his 
bed of suffering, the tree of his religious life bloomed 
and fruited anew. 

Now that he is buried, let us recall his life and 



78 



Lovick Pierce. 



worth; let us study its lessons; and at his tomb 
let us relight our torches, that with renewed zeal 
and a deeper consecration we may "follow him as 
he followed Christ," and press forward in the 
glorious wars of the King of kings and Lord of 
lords ! 



CHRIST DWELLING IN US. 



Ephesians iii. 14-19. 



[COMMENCEMENT SERMON, EMORY COLLEGE, JUNE 27, 1880,] 



. 1 ] J JEgean Sea. In St. Paul's time, it was the 
greatest city of Asia Minor, and was the metropolis 
of the Roman province of Asia. It was Greek in 
its origin, but more than half Oriental in the char- 
acter both of its worship and of its inhabitants. It 
was a rich, populous, and luxurious city. Its peo- 
ple united to the excitability of the Greeks the 
dreamy superstitions of Asia. It was renowned 
among all nations for the worship of Diana, and 
the practice of magic. It was not the Diana of the 
Greeks; the image of their goddess was rather after 
the Indian forms. It was a rude image that sym- 
bolized the reproductive and nutritive forces of 
nature. It was kept sacredly in a costly shrine in 
the interior of the magnificent temple erected to 
her worship. Paul's enemy at Ephesus was not the 
proud and sneering philosophy of the Greeks, as 
in Corinth and Athens, but a dark and passionate 
Asiatic superstition. 

In Ephesus Paul taught two full years. His 
theme was "repentance toward God, and faith to- 
ward our Lord Jesus Christ." He taught publicly 
in the lecture-room of Tyrannus, and exhorted the 
people, Gentiles as well as Jews, from " house to 




was built on some hills near the 



(79) 



80 



Christ Dwelling in Us. 



house," warning "each one with tears." A large 
Church grew up under the apostle's labors, and be- 
came, for a long time, a center of Christian influ- 
ence throughout Asia Minor. What toils, what 
anxieties, what dangers, what sufferings this Church 
of the Ephesians cost the great missionary of apos- 
tolic times, this history tells us. 

It was characteristic of St. Paul that he watched 
over his spiritual children and longed for their relig- 
ious welfare with more than a mother's anxious 
tenderness. This spirit appears in many of his 
Epistles. To the Corinthians, of whom grievous 
reports had reached him, he writes: "I am jealous 
over you w T ith a godly jealousy." Over the mistakes 
and misdeeds of the Galatians he wondered and 
wept. The Philippians, whom he calls his "joy 
and crown," he exhorts to "stand fast in the Lord." 
To the Colossians he writes: "We give thanks to 
God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, pray- 
ing for you always, since we heard of your faith in 
Christ, and your love for all the saints." He en- 
treats the Thessalonians that they " be not shaken 
in mind." Their fidelity cheered and sustained him 
in the midst of " afflictions and distresses," and, 
forgetting both stripes and imprisonments, he tells 
them exultingly, " Now we live, if ye stand fast in' 
the Lord." 

This deep concern for his spiritual children finds 
intense and affecting expression in the prayer which 
is our text to-day. I read it to you — it is in the 
Epistle written from Rome to the Ephesian Church, 
chapter third, verses fourteen to nineteen: 



Christ Dwelling in Us. 



81 



"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of 
oar Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in 
heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, 
according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened 
with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ 
may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted, 
and grounded in lore, may be able to comprehend with 
all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, 
and height; and to know the love of Christ, which pass- 
eth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness 
of God." 

Before considering some of the precious things 
contained in this prayer of St. Paul — a prisoner at 
Rome, and ready to be " offered up," but forgetful 
of himself in his yearning love for the children God 
had given him in the gospel — we may dwell a moment 
upon the apostle's point of view. 

First His conception of God : He is "the Father." 
This is not a figure; the term indicates a fact and 
expresses a relation. The Bible doctrine is, God is 
the "Father of spirits," and therefore, and preemi- 
nently, the Father of man, who is made in his "like- 
ness and image." I do not enter upon a discussion 
of this doctrine now. It is everywhere. It is in 
our Lord's form of prayer; it is in his most tender 
addresses to his disciples; it is in his last words 
and their promise of "mansions" in our "Father's 
house." I can only pause long enough to ask you, 
young men, to consider what a different universe 
this is — what a different being man is — since the 
thought of God's fatherhood has rooted itself in the 
human heart to be lost no more forever. For our 



82 



Christ Dwelling in Us. 



God is not a blind, remorseless, arbitrary fate; be 
is not an irresponsible omnipotence; he is not an 
infinite force; he is not a mere mindless, conscience- 
less, heartless law; he is not simply the Almighty 
Ruler of the universe; — he is the Father of men, 
and " God is love." 

This fact lies back of the creation of man. God 
was the Father of man before that sin entered into 
him, and because he was still his Father he found 
redemption for him. So that his fatherhood is man- 
ifested to us not simply by his creative power, in 
that he made us in his own image, but in his re- 
deeming mercy, in a peculiar and infinitely gracious 
sense, in the gift of his only-begotten Son our Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

Second. Paul's conception of the Church: It is a 
family — "of whom the whole family in heaven and 
earth is named." 

I cannot doubt that Paul intended this phrase, to 
be all-comprehensive. It takes in all in heaven and 
earth who believe and love Jesus Christ; all the 
good below; all the saints above; all the angels. 
And why not? For in Christ "all things subsist." 
Moreover, wherever, in any time or nation, there is 
a soul who, having no knowledge of Christ, devout- 
ly, as did Cornelius, follows as best he may such 
light as he has, that soul is of this " family." Nor 
do the words leave out utterly the unbelieving chil- 
dren; they are also, in a true and blessed sense, of 
this family — not in loving obedience and holy fellow- 
ship, it may be, but members of this family in the 
conditions of their creation, in the fact of their re- 



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83 



demption, and in the possibility of their salvation. 
They are children too. only they have not the hearts 
of children, but of aliens. 

There are many kinds of societies that bind men 
together, as we find them in communities, states, 
nations, races. They are held together by the bonds 
of power or of interest. But the Church is a fam- 
ily, and its ties are family ties. Paul's word is pe- 
culiar, and hardly translatable; it is itself derived 
from the word that means father. 

Let us remember always the two grand concep- 
tions that underlie and inspire such a prayer as this 
— God's fatherhood, and therefore human brother- 
hood. Let us remember also that it is Jesus Christ 
who " shows us the Father," and that he also, and 
he alone, shows us our brother. Jesus Christ is the 
true and only revealer of God and man. In him 
we find God — our Father; in him we find man — 
our brother. Without Jesus Christ, we know nei- 
ther divine fatherhood nor human brotherhood. 
Law, nature, force, teach us neither. These doc- 
trines are not in atoms, molecules, protoplasm. 
They come not by evolution; Jesus showed them to 
men, revealing God the Father to his children, and 
man, the brother, to his brother man. 

Because God is our Father, we can pray and be- 
lieve; because man is our brother, we can love him 
and do him good. In our text, St. Paul prays to 
the Father for the brother. 

For what does he pray? 

I. That they may be " strengthened in the inner man." 
The Bible doctrine of man's sin and trouble is 



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that the "inner man" is corrupted, weakened, and 
degraded. This inner man, to be saved, must be 
purified, strengthened, ennobled. We will more 
easily catch the meaning of the words " inner man " 
by help of a passage in Corinthians, where St. Paul 
says, " Though our outward man perish, yet the 
inward man is renewed day by day." It is that 
part of man that does not perish. It is not some- 
thing physical, but spiritual. But it is more than 
we mean by the words mind, or intellect, as used to 
distinguish between the thinking power and the 
moral and emotional faculty and susceptibility. We 
must not make the definition too narrow, yet it 
must not be so broad as to lead us astray. It is 
nearly if not quite the equivalent of St. Peter's 
phrase, "the hidden man of the heart." Sometimes 
the word "heart" in the New Testament has the 
whole force and meaning of St. Paul's words, "the 
inner man." When the Scriptures speak of " a new 
heart," the words signify the divine change that is 
wrought in the "inner man." Our Lord uses the 
word "heart" in this broad yet peculiar sense: 
" Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts." He does 
not mean by heart the emotions only, nor yet the in- 
tellect, but the entire spiritual part of man; that 
which differences him from the entire animal creation 
— that which was capable of being created in the 
image of God — that which was capable of losing the 
divine image by sin — that which is capable of being 
renewed in that image by the grace and might of 
the Holy Ghost. 

Let us notice that "inner man" is not the same 



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85 



as " fcew man." We may speak of the " inner man " 
of every child of Adam; we speak of the "new 
man" only as to those who have been "created 
anew in Christ Jesus." The "new man" is the 
" new creature" in which the true "inner man,"' 
restored to his lost purity and power of right-living, 
begins to truly live again, rising from the death of 
sin through the life-imparting energy of the quick- 
ening and renewing Spirit. 

And yet if we seek to find the exact truth of St. 
Paul's conception, we will rather stress the word 
"heart" than the word "mind," in defining the 
nature of the " inner man." For while sin has un- 
hinged man's intellect, it has wrought its direst ruin 
in his affections. It is not so much wrong thinking 
that characterizes a bad man as wrong feeling; it is 
not so much a false creed as a bad disposition. 

In saving man, the gospel begins with the "inner 
man." It works from within outward, and not 
from without inward. It would secure fruit by 
making the tree itself good, not by fastening good 
fruit upon barren limbs with wires and other 
mechanical adjustments. Mere ritualism always 
begins on the outward man, and it stays there. 
Religion begins with the inner man, and works like 
leaven through the entire lump of his nature and 
life. Nothing can be plainer, taught by the Script- 
ures and clear to common sense; good lives must 
be the product of good hearts. 

But let us remember that St. Paul makes this 
prayer for regenerate persons. They needed to be 
" strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner 



86 



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man." The power that is in the " new man " is not 
self-originated; it is imparted. It is God's gift. It 
is given by or through the Spirit, whose office it is 
to enlighten, to awaken, to renew, and to sanctify. 
It is no more a self-sustained than it is a self-origi- 
nated life. It is not a machine wound up and left 
to run of itself. The " new man " can no more re- 
tain the life within him without the Spirit than the 
"old man" could originate it without the Spirit. 
Religion is of the Spirit in its incipiency; so in all 
its progress and triumphs. In the most exclusive 
and absolute sense is it true that, in our spiritual or 
Christian life, "we live, and move, and have our 
being " in God. 

The prayer that they may be " strengthened with 
might" by God's "Spirit in the inner man" does 
not contemplate a mere toning up of man's strength, 
but also the impartation of another, a new, a divine 
might. The word is elsewhere and in many con- 
nections translated power. It is the equivalent of 
energy. Man needs this divine creative energy — 
the same in essence and power that moved upon the 
face of the deep when it was made quick with life. 
When the strengthening Paul prays for is granted 
to a disciple, it is not simply that he is strengthened, 
energized in his own powers, though he is so 
strengthened, but that he is strengthened by the gift, 
" according to the riches of God's glory," of a power 
from above — of a divine energy that comes into the 
" inner man." 

We may illustrate, though imperfectly. Some- 
times a man falls into bodily decay; the blood is 



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87 



impoverished/ but has not lost its vital and restoring 
quality; this man may be bettered by tonics which 
enrich his blood, and he may build up wasted tissues 
out of his own blood. It is not simply this sort of 
strengthening that our text speaks of. Sometimes 
a man is so exhausted in his vital powers that his 
blood cannot be bettered in itself. In some such 
cases, transfusion is resorted to; new and healthful 
blood is drawn from the veins of another and in- 
jected into the circulation of the run-down man. 
And the sick man is strengthened by the " might " 
— the energy — that is in the new blood, by help of 
which his own blood may, by and by, be improved 
and enriched. St. Paul speaks of something like 
this. He does not mean a dynamic presence of the 
Holy Spirit operating on the " old man," but in the 
" new man ; " — so operating in him that he becomes 
" a partaker of the divine nature." 

But in all the saving processes of the gospel God 
and man cooperate. There is not only a place for 
faith, but such a necessity for it that without it the 
Spirit cannot do his gracious offices in man's soul. 
It is not an arbitrary thing that faith is made the 
condition of salvation; it is only by this avenue 
that the renewing might of the transforming Spirit 
reaches the "inner man." This renewing energy 
comes not to the inner man by processes of reason- 
ing; it comes through faith, or it comes not at all. 
Faith is the avenue of the Spirit's approach; if it 
be closed, he cannot enter. This is not peculiar to 
religion; it is one manifestation of a universal law. 
A man cannot do his neighbor good by advice, en- 



88 



Christ Dwelling in Us. 



couragement, sympathy, unless the neighbor has 
faith in him. The mother's touch soothes the fears 
of a startled babe at night only because the babe 
has faith in that mother. 

Christ " dwells" in such a heart as Paul is think- 
ing of in this prayer. It is a strong word; it does 
not describe the casual coming in of a visitor, but 
the permanent occupation of a building by its own- 
er, who is also its housekeeper. Christ takes entire 
possession of a heart renewed by the Spirit. 

How meager and barren is that notion of faith 
that says, " Only look and live; " that sings of " one 
drop of the blood;" that presents the cross as a sort 
of charm — a nobler sort of fetich. This sort of 
preaching thinks only of the sacrifice, as if the 
Christ who is our Saviour were not also our Law- 
giver and King as well as our Priest. This present- 
ing a fractional Christ is in much of the current 
preaching and singing. It gives us rhapsodies and 
emotional heats, but it is lacking in the fiber of 
Christian manhood. It is deficient in good morals 
and good works. Its tendency is to exhaust relig- 
ion in what is called the enjoyment of religion. 

Do not mistake me; I believe in the cross, the 
doctrine of atonement; I preach it and trust in it. 
But I believe in all that the gospel tells us of the 
doctrine of the cross. Jesus is more than Priest — 
he is Lawgiver and King. Saving faith takes him 
in all his offices. Faith that trusts only in the vic- 
tim slain is deficient. If we really believe in him, 
we take him as our Teacher and our King. True 
faith learns of the Teacher and obeys the King. 



Christ Dwelling in Us. 



89 



"When the "inner man " is " strengthened by the 
might" of the Holy Spirit* and " Christ dwells in 
the heart/' true faith shows itself not merely in 
trust in his atoning blood, but in the full acceptance 
of all his truth, and in loyal obedience to all his 
law. 

The phrase "that Christ may dwell in your hearts 
by faith" is wondrous rich in its meaning. It tells 
us of a life that is not only at peace in the convic- 
tion and persuasion of the infinite merits of the 
death of Christ Jesus, but that is also so enlightened 
and made free by his truth that obedience to the 
law of God is a privilege. 

II. Knowledge of the love of Christ. 

The strengthening of the inner man by the Spir- 
it's might, the indwelling of the Christ — not the vic- 
tim only, but the Prophet and the King — received 
by faith, all this mighty working results in a proc- 
ess of character-building. Such a man is rooted 
and grounded in the love of Christ. The transfused 
blood asserts itself; new r muscle and sinew are made. 

Let me remind you again that St. Paul is writing 
to Christians. To be renewed is not necessarily to 
be saved; it is not necessary to be born only, but 
also to grow. The new man needs to be confirmed 
in righteousness; he needs that right living in all 
things should become the established habit of his 
nature : — that this habit should be fixed in his doing, 
his thinking, his feeling, and, above all, in his will- 
ing. He needs to be so "rooted and grounded" in 
his knowledge of Christ that it becomes easy and 
natural for him to will as Christ wills. 



90 



Christ Dwelling in Us. 



How does the new man become thus " rooted and 
grounded?" In his personal realization of the ex- 
ceeding great love of Christ to him. Man's love to 
Christ is the fruit of Christ's love to him. The 
man who has some experience of Christ's dwelling 
in his heart apprehends the love of Christ to him 
as no new convert does or can. I know what is 
thought and said about the raptures of a pardoned 
sinner's first love. I know Charles Wesley's lines: 

I rode on the sky, freely justified I, 
Nor did envy Elijah his seat. 

But it is not such love as the matured Christian 
feels, because only the matured Christian can appre- 
hend aright the exceeding riches of Christ's love to 
him. It is the difference between the brawling 
brook of the Andes and the wide and deep Ama- 
zon entering the sea. 

The process I conceive to be a very simple one. 
He who is strengthened in the inner man by the 
might of the renewing Spirit — in whose heart Christ 
dwells as sole Lord of his life and love — more and 
more apprehends Christ's great love to him, and 
more and more his love to Christ increases in purity 
and intensity. Such a heart comes to feel, " I would 
rather die than betray or grieve him." 

Such a man is " rooted " in love. It is the pict- 
ure of a great tree, splendid symbol of a healthful 
and vigorous spiritual life. Let us consider such a 
tree for a moment. What we see is above ground. 
There is the rugged form, the massive trunk, the 
towering crest, the wide -spreading branches, the 



Christ Dwelling in TTs* 



91 



myriad leaves waving their gladness in the morn- 
ing sun. But is that which we see the tree? Let 
us go down— digging deep that we may trace the 
secret of its life, its beauty, its strength, and its 
varied glories. We find a system of roots corre- 
sponding to the branches, great and small. The 
tap-root goes deep down into the earth; the lateral 
roots spread far and near, throwing off thousands 
of rootlets and spongioles that open their mouths 
to the treasures locked up in the generous bosom 
of the earth. We wonder sometimes that its leaf 
does not wither, and that its fruit does not fail. The 
fierce heats of the summer sun seem to fall upon it 
in vain. It is green and fresh when all slightly 
rooted things are withered and dead. But let us 
consider it more carefully. Last summer, near the 
end of a long drought, we were digging a well in 
the street not far from this house. The well was 
sunk near a great oak — one of the original m on- 
arch s of the unbroken forest in which your college 
was planted. Thirty feet down the laborer struck 
his mattock through a root of this tree. The heavy 
earth had pressed it flat, but it held its way, and 
was where it was cut a full inch thick the thinnest 
way. The well-digger sent up to us a section of 
the root he had found. Then the mystery was ex- 
plained: it had gone down to the perennial springs. 
How many gallons of refreshing water had been 
pumped through these little arteries! Holding up 
a piece of the root, a full spoonful of water trickled 
out. I drank it; it was sweet and cool. Where 
Jesus Christ dwells in the heart, the roots of the 



92 Christ Dwelling in Tig. 



Spirit's life go down so deep that they find the 
sweet fountains of living waters that never fail. 

St. Paul was much given to illustrations, some- 
times turning a great thought around like a revolv- 
ing light-house. To intensify our conception of 
the strength of holy character that the indwelling 
Christ brings to the inner man, he passes from the 
image of a tree to that of a house: " Grounded in 
love." The conception is that of a great building 
upon a firm foundation. Some think that he had 
the great temple of the Ephesian Diana in his mind. 
It might well be so; years were spent in laying its 
foundations. If he thought of any particular build- 
ing it is probable that it was of the temple in Jeru- 
salem. Explorations in our day show us its deep 
and massive foundations; the ancient builders went 
down till they found the very bed-rock itself. It is 
certain that the idea of the rock-foundation is here. 
It may be that Paul borrowed the image from the 
closing words of our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. 
"Well he might, and find the application of both his 
splendid figures in Christ Jesus and his relations to 
redeemed men. When we realize the love of Christ, 
the roots of our inner life go deep down into this 
exhaustless soil, rich in all productive power, and 
refreshed with never-failing streams, pure and swept, 
though concealed from the eye of sense; and when 
we realize the truth of Christ, the heart rests upon 
it as upon the eternal rock that does not move or 
tremble beneath the thunders of the sky or the 
beatings of the sea. 

For Christians so "rooted and grounded," the 



Christ Dwelling in TJs. 



93 



apostle's prayer goes further; he prays that they 
"may be able to comprehend with all saints 
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and 
height.'' 

Shall we say the breadth, length, depth, and 
height of the love of Christ? This is not clear; 
besides, he speaks of this directly in the following 
clause. It is rather, as it seems, left indefinite of 
purpose. Is he not praying here that they " may 
be able to comprehend the breadth, and length, and 
depth, and height" of all God's great work done for 
us, and revealed in us? 

The spiritual law that underlies the weighty 
words of this sublime prayer is this: The knowl- 
edge of Christ's love, made possible to us, not by 
the reading of the evangelists merely, not by the 
understanding of the plan of salvation merely, but 
by his dwelling in us, results in Christian character 
— that is, in Christ-likeness, which, in its maturer 
development, is symbolized by a deeply rooted tree 
and a well-founded house; and this maturing Chris- 
tian character, this increasing Christ-likeness, brings 
to us ever-increasing capacity to comprehend more 
and more of him — of his truth and his love. This 
law holds good in all Christian experience. All 
experimental knowledge of Christ leads to maturer 
experience; this deeper experience to more perfect 
knowledge; and this more perfect knowledge to 
deeper experience. And so on, thank God, forever 
aud ever! 

Shall we try to fix in the forms of logical state- 
ment and limitation the meaning of these tremen- 



94 



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dons words? Do you ask for analysis here? for defi- 
nitions, when we are thinking of these ineffable 
Christian experiences? Not if you are wise. St. 
Paul does not teach the higher life, or the deeper 
experiences, of faith and love by definition. 2s~or 
does Jesus Christ our Lord. It is for ordinary 
thinkers and uninspired writers to try to do this. 
" Vanity of vanities! " 

What do these terms mean? St. Paul, in using 
them, means to exhaust language in the hopeless 
attempt to express things in themselves unutterable. 
Many fanciful explanations, ''geometrical, architect- 
ural, and spiritual,'' have been offered. But we 
catch the true meaning of such words best when we 
do not attempt to fix their meaning too closely. 
They do not indicate angles and inclosed spaces 
that maybe measured; these dimensions take in all 
the stars and whatever there may be beyond them; 
they go down to the deepest secrets of being — of 
life, of death, of time, and of eternity. St. Paul 
mentions all the dimensions that can be applied to 
the measurement of a body in order to stimulate 
the imagination to take hold upon infinite truths. 
His words tremble under the weight of his inspired 
thoughts. 

We do not make our conceptions clearer by push- 
ing definition too far; by attempting to apply anal- 
ysis where, in the very nature of things, analysis is 
impossible. Tell me whether the great dome above 
us is more sublime, or even more clearl} 7 conceived, 
if we try to mark it off in geometrical figures and 
measure their lines in yards and inches, as we would 



Christ Dwelling in TJs. 



95 



a flower-bed, or a plaything? No, no; don't count 
the stars for me; nor map off the heavens as a sur- 
veyor maps off the streets of a village. Let me 
bare my head under the midnight sky and worship 
God. Let me look at the whole heaven that is in 
view; if we would see more, bring a telescope, but 
no microscope here. When the telescope has done 
all that it can do, let imagination and faith do the 
rest — we are only at the threshold. 

III. The knowledge-passing love of Christ. 

Caught in the swing of his great thought, St. 
Paul cannot stop. The sky grows vaster over him; 
new and more splendid worlds wheel into his field 
of vision. Young men, he was praying when these 
thoughts came to him. It is profoundly significant. 
Prayer, and nothing else, " climbs the ladder Jacob 
saw." "When a devout man is upon his knees, plead- 
ing the truth and love of Christ, visions are granted 
to him that " eye hath not seen; " words, sweeter 
than angels use, come to him that " ear hath not 
heard." 

Nothing is plainer to me; our noblest thoughts 
of God and of redeemed humanity come to us when 
we pray. I do not mean when we mumble a form 
of words, but when the soul wrestles in its might 
of trusting weakness — ^it may be in utter silence and 
without words; when our faith, simple as a child's 
and strong as an archangel's, takes hold upon the 
eternal promises; when our gratitude makes its 
offering of love and service-^breaking our verj' lives 
as Mary broke the precious alabaster-box with its 
costly perfume in uncalculating love of her Lord — 



96 



Christ Dwelling in Us. 



it is at such times, and in such moods, and by help 
of such wings, that we are lifted up into the higher 
spheres of thought and life, where philosophy is 
blind and science is dumb. It is when the soul 
agonizes in prayer that faith discovers new worlds 
that shine afar. It is the wrestling Jacob who 
triumphs. 

Paul was not only praying, he was praying in a 
dungeon, and not in the great congregation, when 
he wrote these words. Social prayer is good; it is 
good to pray with and in the assembly of the saints; 
it is good to bow down in the midst of our families 
and offer the morning and evening sacrifice; but the 
best praying, the truest praying, can be done only 
in the closet, where only God's eye sees and only 
God's ear hears. Religion reaches her highest and 
deepest experiences when she " shuts the door" and 
is alone with God.' It was not an accident, or a 
form, that explains our Lord's praying, by night 
and all night, in mountain solitudes; it was a neces- 
sity to his spirit's life. 

There is still, beloved, a holy of holies for us. It 
is not in the dim interior of the temple at Jerusa- 
lem; it is wherever a human soul, burdened with 
its woe of sin and leaning on the love of Christ, is 
alone with God, its Father. For such a soul the 
wings of the cherubim are still spread over the al- 
tar; for such a soul the light of the shekinah still 
shines between them; for such a soul there are still 
visions and voices in the ni°;ht. 

"What, you ask me, does St. Paul mean by the 
words, "And to know the love of Christ, which 



Christ Dwelling in Us. 



97 



passeth knowledge, and to be filled with all the 
fullness of God?" 

A man who does not pray can have no conception 
of them. He had gone to the very verge of expres- 
sion in the words that go before them. But when 
he had uttered them his soul took wing again, and 
he soars into still loftier regions. Again he strains 
to breaking the powers of that marvelous Greek 
tongue to tell the Ephesians something more of the 
wonders of redeeming love. Words perhaps can 
go no further; but he has not told all that struggles 
for utterance in his heart of flame. This much I 
know : the Greek form of words means, this love of 
Christ is a knowledge-surpassing love. Man did not 
evolve this thought; man cannot master it : it passes 
his knowledge. But it may and does fill his soul — 
fill it with the fullness of God — just as the revealing 
light and quickening heat of the sun fills the earth 
and sky, and has still enough left for ten thousand 
such worlds. 0! if that light and heat were not 
tempered by distance and kindly clouds, it would 
blind and consume us; if God revealed himself in 
all of his ineffable glory, we would die. When he 
showed to Moses in the mount only a part of his 
glories — a glimpse only of the mere fringe that 
skirted his garments — he first hid him in a hole in 
the rock and covered him with his hand till the 
consuming splendors had passed by. But the glory 
that Moses saw — only the blush of the dawn as 
compared with the sun shining in his strength — 
kindled a light on his face, his mortal face, that 
made all Israel afraid. And now and for us it is 



98 



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true that the personal knowledge of the love of 
Christ — a knowledge that can come to us only 
through spiritual experience and holy living — enno- 
bles and glorifies our poor marred and sin-stained 
humanity, till of all the fair and noble things in 
this world a pure-hearted human being is the fair- 
est of them ail. 

Young men of the graduating olass, I must to- 
day take counsel of my heart and say something to 
you on this the last Sabbath we shall all ever meet 
again in this holy place. We have had pleasant 
hours together; you now go your ways, but you 
will always be dear to us. Often we will recall 
your faces and names, and often we will try to pray 
for you. We rejoice that many of you do already 
know something of the love of Christ. I glorify 
God that you all may know him. And, my dear 
children, I have faith that you will all of you yet, 
come to know and love him. 

You are going out into a world whose very air is 
tainted with unbelief. You will be offered all sorts 
of theories of the universe, of man, and of God, in 
place of the grand old gospel which you first learned 
at your mother's knee, and which, I give thanks to 
God, we have always taught you here. In view of 
all these things, I want to tell you to-day: Our mis- 
takes and misconceptions as to God and his provi- 
dence, and our relation to him, are clue not to our 
science or to our philosophy, but to the lack of the 
indwelling Spirit of life within us. Nearly all the 
infidelity in the w r orld has its root in sin. It is sin 
that confuses your philosophy, blinds your science, 



Christ Dwelling in Us. 



99 



confounds jour logic, and perverts your very in- 
stincts and intuitions. 

The German proverb says, "In this world the 
eye sees what it brings capacity for seeing." And 
it says truly. A few days ago I was returning from 
South Carolina through that most romantic region 
of Georgia, along the base of the Blue Ridge 
Mountains. It was near sunset. To our right, 
stretching far beyond the range of vision, were the 
blue mountains, softened by distance and glorified 
in the rays of the setting sun. 

A youth, untaught even in the school of nature, 
entered the cars at one of the little stations and sat 
down near me. There was not an expression of 
thought or feeling in his face. His dull eye gave 
back no answer to the glorious visions around us. 
But presently the sun dipped behind the mountains, 
and then we saw a picture that memory will hold 
dear forever. Although we could not see the sun 
himself, his rays, shooting far above, fell on the tall 
tree-tops that crested a range of hills to the east. 
In a few minutes a new glory appeared. Bushing 
round one of the foot-hills, we passed through a 
gentle mist of rain. And now, among and above 
the tree-tops, the rainbow sign of the divine mercy 
appeared. Eveu the poor boy saw that, and his 
cheek glowed and paled; his dull eye flashed for an 
instant as he saw the splendors of light and shad- 
ow and color that crowned and glorified the hills 
and the trees. For a moment that revelation lifted 
even him above himself. Suppose now he had said, 
as he looked on the glowing tree-tops and the glo- 



100 



Christ Dwelling in Us. 



rious rainbow, "It is there — right there in the trees 
— all there is of it." He would have erred as they 
do who explore all fields of science — who count the 
stars and weigh them — who, beholding all the mag- 
nificence of the universe, say, "That is all there is 
of it — there is nothing more — no power above and 
beyond, and in it all no God." How strange that 
it was among the Alps that Shelley called him- 
self an atheist! The glory of the tree-tops and of 
the rainbow was not in the trees or the wondrous 
arch that spanned them. On the other side of us 
was the setting sun. The whole western sky was 
resplendent in purple and gold. It was the sunlight 
that painted these splendors and kindled these fires. 
And wherever you see beauty and glory, whether 
in a flower by the way-side, or in a snow-crystal 
falling softly at your feet from wintry skies, or in 
the magnificence of the heavens, or in the human 
face, or in the human soul, be sure God is behind it, 
above it, beyond it, in it. 

For a few moments that evening my attention 
was arrested in looking at the red embankment of 
the road-bed. It was flowerless and lifeless. I 
might have kept my gaze there, but I would have 
missed the sunset glories of the earth and the sky. 
There is a true as well as a false pantheism; if Jesus 
Christ dwell in your hearts, you will see God every- 
where and in all things. 

I ought not to close this sermon without remind- 
ing you again that St. Paul was in a dungeon when 
he wrote this prayer and had these visions of Chris- 
tian experience. And a thousand times has it been 



Christ Dwelling m Us 



101 



so that dungeons have furnished Pisgah-views of 
the promised inheritance. It was through the bars 
of Bedford jail that John. Bunyan saw the Delect- 
able Mountains, and the gate of pearl when it was 
opened for Christian and Faithful, and had his 
glimpse of the white-robed company in the celestial 
city. 

If you do your full duty to God, some of you may 
yet find yourselves prisoners of the Lord. Most 
certainly you will be brought through the valley of 
sorrow; he w T ho follows Christ must pass through 
Gethsemane. Fear not — the great law is. "Made 
perfect through suffering." These words were spok- 
en of our Lord and Saviour, but they come home 
to us also. As one has said, "The duty-ideal, like 
the Christ-ideal, has the mark of wounds." 

I remind you that it was the apostle to the Gen- 
tiles who wrote this Epistle, and offered the prayer 
which has been the subject of our meditations this 
morning. St. Paul gloried in his call to be a mis- 
sionary to the despised heathen, and it was the con- 
ception of a divine love that embraced them every 
one that filled his soul with wonder and praise. The 
Jews were slow of heart to believe that God could 
love the heathen as he did the children of Abra- 
ham. So many of us, whose ancestors were hea- 
then till the missionaries brought them the gospel, 
have fallen into a fatal and sinful habit of thinking 
of the heathen of our own times as the Jews thought 
of the heathen of their day — as mere barbarians, in 
whom we have little concern, and who are of small 
consequence to God or to men. But the Lord 



102 



Christ Dwelling in Us. 



Christ, who sent Paul far away to the Gentiles, 
comes to us at this Commencement, and lays his 
hand on some who are very near to us and says to 
them, "Get ye far hence to the Gentiles." Three 
of your class are going to China to help our dear 
Brother Allen and the rest of our brethren there to 
preach the gospel and found a Church that shall 
bless the ages to come. 

You, dear boys — " henceforth I call you brethren " 
— who go to China, will need the divine supports 
that St. Paul found in his great missionary toils. 
They will not fail you. For you also is the prom- 
ise: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end 
of the world." 

Many a time from around these altars will our 
voices mingle before the mercy-seat with yours 
from China. And some day our songs will mingle 
around the throne in heaven. 

Read, again and again, this prayer of St. Paul;" 
try to realize what it teaches, and tells, and inti- 
mates. Let us join, every one of us, in the apos- 
tle's sublime doxology: "iTow unto him that is 
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we 
ask or think, according to the power that worketh 
in us, unto him be glory in the Church by Christ 
Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. 
Amen." 



NEW SOUTH; 

GRATITUDE, AMENDMENT, HOPE. 
[A THANKS GIVING- SERMON,-] 



"O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. 
For his merciful kindness is great toward us; and the truth of the 
Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord." Psalm cxvii. 

"A"TEARLY all nations, in both ancient and mod- 
ern times, have incorporated into their relig- 
ious and social customs annual thanksgivings for 
the blessings that crown each year. Your classic 
literature, young gentlemen of the College, will tell 
you of many festivals, celebrated by the Greeks and 
Romans, that publicly recognized the gifts of the 
gods in the vintage and harvests of their fields. 
These festivals were a part of their social and relig- 
ious life. I cannot conceive of any thing more be- 
coming than that a Christian nation should celebrate 
a day of universal thanksgiving to the God and 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; the Father, also, 
} of all men, and the Giver of all good. To me it is 
most inspiring to think that at this hour there are 
millions of our brethren and fellow-citizens in this 



* Preached before the students of Emory College and the citizens 
of Oxford, Ga., November 25, 1880. Its publication was requested 
by a unanimous vote of the congregation, on a motion by the Rev. 
Dr. Morgan Callaway, Vice-president of the College. 

H03) 



104 



The New South: 



Heaven-favored land engaged, like ourselves, in songs 
of praise and in the worship of our ever-merciful 
God. From unnumbered hearts and voices goes up 
the song: "0 praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise 
him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is 
great toward us; and the truth of the Lord endur- 
eth forever. Praise ye the Lord." 

Before considering some of our peculiar obliga- 
tions to be grateful to God, let us first ask two 
questions: 

Why should we observe this particular day, Thurs- 
day, November 25, 1880, as a day of thanksgiving? 
And zohy should we assemble in our accustomed place 
of iv or ship for this purpose? 

I answer, Because our rulers have commanded it. 
We are here in obedience to proclamations from the 
chief executives of both our Nation and State — 
from his Excellency Rutherford B. Hayes, Presi- 
dent of the United States, and from his Excellency 
Alfred H. Colquitt, Governor of Georgia. These 
proclamations make it not merely our privilege, but 
our duty also, to meet together on this particular 
day to unite in public, thanksgiving to Almighty 
God for his manifold and great mercies. And the 
Scriptures — our only rule of faith and practice — 
sustain this proposition. In all things lawful, as 
tested by the greater law of God, it is a Christian 
man's duty to obey those in authority. 

I have thought it well to examine with some care 
the scriptural basis of this doctrine. Why should 
we obey law? Why ought we to promote the effi- 
ciency and usefulness of the government under 



Gratitude, Amendment, Hope. 



105 



which we live — whether municipal, state, or na- 
tional? whether domestic, civil, or ecclesiastical? 
The subject is broad, and there are many passages 
which bear upon it; but two or three will answer 
our present purpose. St. Paul, in his Epistle to the 
Romans, gives us a remarkable and unmistakable 
passage upon this subject. I read Romans xiii. 1-7 : 
"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. 
For there is no power but of God: the powers that 
be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore re- 
sisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; 
and they that resist shall receive to themselves dam- 
nation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, 
but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of 
the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt 
have praise of the same: for he is the minister of 
God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is 
evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain : 
for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute 
wrath upon him that cloeth evil. Wherefore ye 
must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also 
for conscience' sake. For, for this cause pay ye 
tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending 
continually upon this very thing. Render therefore 
to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; 
custom to w^hom custom; fear to whom fear; honor 
to whom honor." St. Peter gives us a statement 
no less distinct and emphatic. I read 1 Peter ii. 
13-18: "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of 
man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, 
as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that 
are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, 



106 



The New South: 



and for the praise of them that do well. For so is 
the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to 
silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and 
not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, 
but as the servants of God. Honor all men. Love 
the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. 
Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; 
not only to the good and gentle, but also to the 
froward." 

On this whole subject there can be, I think, no 
doubt as to the general doctrine of the Bible. It 
may be briefly stated thus: 1. God is the source of 
all law and authority, as he is the fountain of all 
existence. 2. He ordains government; that is, the 
thing, not the form. The texts just read are as 
applicable to one form as to another. 3. Obedience 
to 4, the powers that be ''* is a duty, not only as to 
our rulers, but as to God. who is the Governor of 
all. 4. Let us observe further; for it is a matter of 
vital importance, it is not to the king, or president, 
or governor we owe obedience, but to the ruler; not 
simply to the highest, "the king as supreme,'" but 
to all rulers; to "governors" also, of every grade, 
as representing the highest — rather as represent- 
ing, under him, the law and government that are 
back of him and above him; that is, to push the 
thought farther, but not too far, not merely the 
law and constitution of the state, but the divine law 
and constitution of the universe. "Wherefore St. 
Paul says, " Render to all their dues: tribute to 
whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom ; fear 
to whom fear; honor to whom honor." St. Peter 



Gratitude, AlMexdment^ Hope. 107 



teaches the same doctrine. So does Moses. So 
does our Lord himself. 

The foundation truth of the whole doctrine is 
this : Whoever administers legitimate authority rep- 
resents, in so far forth as his office and functions go. 
God. Men speak sometimes of God's vicar-general. 
He has none — neither in king, nor pope, nor democ- 
racies. God's vicar is government — all government. 
Just as the simplest, as well as the most complex, 
processes of nature show forth the power and prov- 
idence of God, so the humblest office-bearer, enforc- 
ing the least of all laws that are in harmonv with 
eternal righteousness, represents the majesty and 
authority of the divine government. The principle 
and the obligation are the same, whether it be the 
president, the governor, the local magistrate, the 
town marshal, the college professor, the village 
school-mistress, the employer. In a word, whoever 
bears rightful rule does, in his sphere, whether it be 
great or small, represent God. And " whoso resist- 
eth the power,'' in things lawfully commanded. " re- 
sisteth God/' Be it remembered, furthermore, the 
obligation does not depend upon the personal char- 
acter of the rulers, but upon the fact of their au- 
thority. Xero was Emperor of Rome, yet Paul 
commands obedience. 

The right of amending bad laws, of seeking, by 
right methods, to change unsatisfactory administra- 
tions, or even the right of revolution, if it come to 
that, all guaranteed to our race by both the Script- 
ures and sound reason, it is not needful to discuss 
at this time. But it may be remarked that even 



108 



The New South: 



revolution should have this basis — that it seeks 
obedience to that which is the real law, and which 
ought to be the rule of existing governments. Dis- 
obedience becomes a duty when literal obedience 
would be real disobedience. "Children, obey your 
parents in the Lord," expresses the principle. There 
is no authority more sacred than the parental, but 
it must be "in the Lord;" otherwise, authority is 
so perverted that obedience becomes disobedience. 

The duty of thanksgiving to God needs no argu- 
ment. It is summed up in the language of St. 
James: "Every good and every perfect gift is from 
above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, 
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of 
turning." Our entire dependence is stated by St. Paul 
in his discourse to the Athenians: "In him we live, 
and move, and have our being." A very large part 
of the Scriptures is made up of different statements 
of this truth. In every age inspiration has been at 
infinite pains to teach men the truth and reality of 
their entire dependence upon God for all things. 
Thousands of texts might be brought forward in 
confirmation of this statement, and in illustration 
of this truth. Have we life, health, peace, food, 
raiment, homes, friends, civilization, grace, religion 
— any blessing of any kind for our bodies or our 
souls, for this world or the next? Then it is God's 
free and gracious gift. It is the expression of his 
fatherly love for us, his children. If our industry 
has been blessed, it is God's blessing; if our friends 
have done us good, they are God's providential min- 
isters to us. The Old Testament writers recognize 



Gratitude, Amendment, Hope. 109 



the divine "band in every blessing; the Psalms of 
David, and of every other good man of every na- 
tion, are full of it. Our Lord Jesus teaches it in 
discourse and parable — above all, in his mighty 
works and mightier life. He calls upon the lilies 
of the valley, and the sparrows of the house-tops 
and the fields, to make plain and sure to us the doc- 
trine of the infinitely gracious, all-wise, and all-em- 
bracing providence of God. 

Let as consider briefly our special obligations to be 
grateful to God. 

I waive, at this time, any discussion of those obli- 
gations that are common to all men — as the gift of 
life; the constant providences that bring us bless- 
ings every day and hour; above all, the gift of Jesus 
Christ and his gospel, bringing life and immortality 
to light. This morning let me mention some con- 
siderations that should influence us, as citizens of 
these United States, at this time, to thanksgiving, 
and especially as residents of that section of the 
country that is known as "the South." 

1. We should thank God that ours is a Christian 
nation. Granting all that may be said of the wick- 
edness that is in the land, it is still true that in its 
institutions and overruling spirit this is a Christian 
nation. 

2. That our country is at peace, and that it is not 
threatened with war. 

3. That we have passed through the quadrennial 
convulsion incident to the election of President so 
quietly and safely. And we should be thankful 
that the election is so pronounced that the country 



110 



The New South: 



is saved from the strain of a six mouths' debate and 
conflict, such as we had four years ago, to settle the 
question of the Presidency. Although nearly half 
the people have been disappointed in the results of 
the election, still no sane man can doubt whether 
General Garfield has been elected President of the 
United States. 

4. That we have had so clean and able an admin- 
istration during the last four years. 

5. That the general business interests of the whole 
country are so prosperous. 

I come now to mention some reasons why ive of " the 
South" should both "thank God and take courage" 

I may possibly (but I trust not) speak of some 
things that you may not relish, and advance some 
views that you may not approve. If so, I only ask 
a fair and reasonable reflection upon them. If you 
should condemn them, I have left me at least the 
satisfaction of being quite sure that I am right, and 
that, if you live long enough, you will agree with 
me. And first, we of the South have great reason 
to be thankful to God that we are in all respects so 
well off ; and that, too, so soon after so great a war, so 
complete an upturning of our institutions, so entire 
an overthrow of our industries, so absolute a defeat 
of our most cherished plans. Recall briefly the last 
twenty years. Think of what we were in 1860 and 
in 1865. Then look about you and see what we are 
in 1880. What was thought by our people after 
Appomattox and April, 1865, as to the prospect 
before us? Some of you can recall the forebodings 
of that time as to the return of business prosperity, 



Gratitude, Amendment, Hope. Ill 



the restoration and preservation of civil and social 
order among ourselves, and the restoration of our 
relations to the Union. 

You know how many of our best and bravest left 
our section forever in sheer despair. Behold now 
what wonders have been wrought in fifteen years! 

Firstly, considering where and what we were fif- 
teen years ago, considering the financial convulsions 
and panics that have swept over our country during 
that time — I might say, that have disturbed the civ- 
ilized world — our industrial and financial condition 
to-day is marvelously good. It is not true, as cer- 
tain croakers and "Bourbons/ 5 floated from their 
moorings by the rising tides of new and better ideas, 
are so fond of saying, that the South is getting 
poorer every day. These croakings are not only 
unseemly ; they are false in their statements, as they 
are ungrateful in their sentiment, A right study 
of our tax-returns will show that there is life and 
progress in the South. But statistical tables are 
not the only witnesses in such a case. Let people 
use their own eyes. Here is this one fact — the cot- 
ton crop, as an exponent of the power of our indus- 
trial system. In 1879 we made nearly five million 
bales; in 1880 it is believed that we will make nearly 
six million bales. We never made so much under 
the old system. It is nonsense to talk of a country 
as ruined that can do such things. There are more 
people at work in the South to-day than were ever 
at work before; and they are raising uot only more 
cotton, but more of every thing else. And no won- 
der, for the farming of to-day is better than the 



112 



The New South: 



farming of the old days; and in two grand particu- 
lars: first, better culture; second, the ever-increas- 
ing tendency to break up the great plantations into 
small farms. Our present system is more than re- 
storing what the old system destroyed. 

The great body of our people not only make more 
than they did before the war, but they make a bet- 
ter use of it — they get unspeakably more comfort 
out of it. I am willing to make the comparison on 
any line of things that you may suggest, for I know 
both periods. Remember that I am speaking of the 
great mass of the people, and not of the few great 
slave-holders, some of whom lived like princes; not 
forgetting, meantime, that the majority of our people 
never owned slaves at all. 

For one illustration, take, if you please, the home- 
life of our people. There is ten times the comfort 
there was twenty years ago. Travel through your 
own county — and it is rather below than above the 
average — by any public or private road. Compare 
the old and the new houses. The houses built re- 
cently are better every way than those built before 
the w T ar. I do not speak of an occasional mansion, 
that in the old times lifted itself proudly among a 
score of cabins, but of the thousands of decent 
farm-houses, comely cottages, that have been built 
in the last ten years. I know scores whose new 
barns are better than their old residences. Our peo- 
ple have better furniture. Good mattresses have 
largely driven out the old-time feathers. Cook- 
stoves, sewing-machines, with all such comforts and 
conveniences, may be seen in a dozen homes to-day 



Gratitude, Amendment, Hope. 113 



where you could hardly have found them in one in 
1860. Lamps that make reading agreeable have 
driven out tallow-dips, by whose glimmering no 
eyes could long read and continue to see. Better 
taste asserts itself: the new houses are painted; they 
have not only glass, but blinds. There is more 
comfort inside. There are luxuries where once 
there were not conveniences. Carpets are getting 
to be common among the middle classes. There 
are parlor organs, pianos, and pictures, where we 
never saw them before. And so on, to the end of a 
long chapter. 

Test the question of our better condition by the 
receipts of benevolent institutions, the support of 
the ministry, the building, improvement, and fur- 
nishing of churches, and we have the same answer 
— our people are better off now than in 1860. 

In reply to all this some one will say, " But it 
costs more to live than in 1860/' I answer, True 
enough; but there is more to live for. 

Secondly, the social and civil order existing in the 
Southern States is itself wonderful, and an occasion 
of profound gratitude. For any wrongs that have 
been done in our section, for any acts of violence on 
any pretext, for any disobedience to law, I have not 
one word of defense. Admitting, for argument's 
sake, all that the bitterest of our censors have ever 
said upon these subjects, I still say, considering what 
were the conditions of life in the Southern States 
after April, 1865, the civil and social order that 
exists in the South is wonderful. Our critics and 
censors forget, we must believe, the history of othe* 

8 



114 



The New South: 



countries. They have never comprehended the 
problem we had given us to work out after the sur-' 
render. Only those who lived through that period 
can ever understand it. Why has not this whole 
Southern country repeated the scenes of Hayti and 
San Domingo? Not the repressive power of a strong 
government only; not the fear of the stronger race 
only; not that suggestions have been lacking from 
fierce and narrow fanatics; but chiefly in this, the 
conservative power of the Protestant religion, which 
had taken such deep root in the hearts and lives of 
our people. The controlling sentiment of the South- 
ern people, in city and hamlet, in camp and field, 
among the white and the black, has been religious. 

Thirdly, the restoration of our relations to the 
General Government should excite our gratitude. 
Possibly some do not go with me here. Then I 
must go without them, but I shall not lack for com- 
pany; and as the years pass, it will be an ever-in- 
creasing throng. We must distinguish between a 
party we have for the most part antagonized and 
the government it has so long a time controlled. 
Whatever may be the faults of the party in power, 
or of the party out of power, this is, nevertheless, 
so far as I know, altogether the most satisfactory 
and desirable government in the world; and I am 
thankful to God, the disposer of the affairs of na- 
tions and of men, that our States are again in rela- 
tions with, the General Government. 

Should we be surprised or discouraged because 
our section does not control the government? His 
+ ory, if not reason, should teach us better. Is there 



GRATITUDE, AMENDMENT, HOPE. 115 



a parallel to our history since 1860 — war, bitter, 
continued, and destructive, defeat utter and over- 
whelming, and all followed so soon by so great 
political influence and consideration as we now en- 
joy? When did a defeated and conquered minority 
ever before, in the short space of fifteen years, regain 
such power and influence in any age or nation ? 
And this is the more wonderful when we consider 
the immeasurable capacity for blundering which 
the leaders of the dominant party in our section 
have manifested during these years of political con- 
flict. And it is the more wonderful still when we 
consider how ready the dominant party of the other 
section has been to receive, as the expression of the 
fixed though secret sentiment of the mass of the 
Southern people, the wild utterances of a few ex- 
treme impracticables, who have never forgotten and 
have never learned. I tell you to-day, the sober- 
minded people who had read history did not, in 
1865, expect that our relations with the General 
Government would be, by 1880, as good as they are. 
But they would have been better than they are if 
the real sentiment of the masses on both sides could 
have gotten itself fairly expressed; for these masses 
wish to be friends, and before very long they will 
sweep from their way those who seek to hinder 
them. My congregation, looked at on all sides and 
measured by any tests, it is one of the wonders of 
history that our people have, in so short a time (fif- 
teen years is a very short time in the life-time of a 
nation), so far overcome the evil effects of one of 
the most bloody, and desolating, and exasperating 



116 



The New South: 



wars ever waged in this world! And the facts 
speak worlds for our Constitution, for our form of 
government, and, above all, for our Protestant re- 
ligion — a religion which will yet show itself to be 
the best healer of national wounds, and the best 
reconciler of estranged brethren. 

Fourthly, there is one great historic fact which 
should, in my sober judgment, above all things, ex- 
cite everywhere in the South profound gratitude 
to Almighty God: I m.ean the abolition of African 
slavery. 

If I speak only for myself (and I am persuaded 
that I do not), then be it so. But I, for one, thank 
God that there is no longer slavery in these United 
States! I am persuaded that I only say what the 
vast majority of our people feel and believe. I do 
not forget the better characteristics of African 
slavery as it existed among us for so long a time 
under the sanction of national law and under the 
protection of the Constitution of the United States; 
I do not forget that its worst features were often 
cruelly exaggerated, and that its best were unfairly 
minified ; more than all, I do not forget that, in the 
providence of God, a work that is without a paral- 
lel in history was done on the Southern plantations 
— a work that was begun by such men as Bishop 
Capers, of South Carolina, Lovick Pierce and Bish- 
op Andrew, of Georgia, and by men like-minded 
with them — a work whose expenses were met by 
the slave-holders themselves — a work that resulted 
m the Christianizing of a full half million of the 
African people, who became communicants of our 



Gratitude, Amendment* Hope. 



117 



Churches, and in the bettering of nearly the whole 
four or five million who were brought largely un- 
der the redeeming influence of our holy religion. 

I have nothing to say at this time of the particu- 
lar "war measure" that brought about their imme- 
diate and unconditioned enfranchisement, only that 
it is history, and that it is done for once and for all. 
I am not called on, in order to justify my position, to 
approve the political unwisdom of suddenly placing 
the ballot in the hands of nearly a million of un- 
qualified men — only that, since it is done, this also 
is history that we of the South should accept, and 
that our fellow-citizens of the North should never 
disturb. But all these things, bad as they may have 
been, and unfortunate as they may yet be, are only 
incidental to the one great historic fact, that slavery 
exists no more. For this fact I devoutly thank God 
this day! And on many accounts: 

1. For the negroes themselves. While they have 
suffered and will suffer many things in their strug- 
gle for existence, I do nevertheless believe that in 
the long run it is best for them. How soon they 
shall realize the possibilities of their new relations 
depends largely, perhaps most, on themselves. Much 
depends on those who, under God, set them free. 
By every token this whole nation should undertake 
the problem of their education. That problem will 
have to be worked out on the basis of cooperation; 
that is, they must be helped to help themselves. To 
make their education an absolute gratuity will per- 
petuate many of the misconceptions and weaknesses 
of character which now embarrass and hinder their 



118 



The New South: 



progress. Much also depends upon the Southern 
white people — their sympathy, their justice, their 
wise and helpful cooperation. This we should give 
them, not reluctantly, but gladly, for their good and 
for the safety of all, for their elevation, and for the 
glory of God. How we may do this may be matter 
for discussion hereafter. 

2. I am grateful that slavery no longer exists, 
because it is better for the white people of the South. 
It is better for our industries and our business, as 
proved by the crops that free labor makes. But by 
eminence it is better for our social and ethical devel- 
opment. "VVe will now begin to take our right place 
among both the conservative and aggressive forces 
of the civilized and Christian world. 

3. I am grateful because it is unspeakably better 
for our children and children's children. It is bet- 
ter for them in a thousand ways. I have not time 
for discussion in detail now. But this, if nothing 
else, proves the truth of my position: there are 
more white children at work in the South to-day 
than ever before. And this goes far to account for 
the six million bales of cotton. Our children are 
growing up to believe that idleness is vagabondage. 
One other thing I wish to say before leaving this 
point. We hear much about the disadvantages to 
our children of leaving them among several million 
of freedmen. I recognize them, and feel them; but 
I would rather leave my children among several 
million of free negroes than among several million 
of negroes in slavery. 

But leaving out of view at this time all discussion 



Gratitude, Amendment, Hope. 



119 



of the various benefits that may come through the 
enfranchisement of the negroes, I am thankful on 
the broad and unqualified ground that there is now 
no slavery in all our land. 

Does any one say to me this day: " You have got 
new light; you have changed the opinions you en- 
tertained twenty years ago." I answer humbly, 
but gratefully, and without qualification: I have 
got new light. I do now believe many things that 
I did not believe twenty years ago. Moreover, if it 
please God to spare me in this world twenty years 
longer, I hope to have, on many difficult problems, 
more new light. I expect, if I see the dawn of the 
year 1900, to believe some things that I now reject, 
and to reject some things that I now believe. And 
I will not be alone. 

In conclusion, I ask you to indulge me in a few 
reflections that are, I believe, appropriate to this 
occasion. 

And first of all, as a people, let us of the South 
frankly recognize some of our faults and lacks, and try 
to reform and improve. I know this is a hard task. 
And it is all the harder because we are the subjects 
of so much denunciation and misrepresentation by 
our critics of the Northern States, and of other 
countries. Much of this comes through sincere 
ignorance; much of it through the necessities of 
party politics; some of it, I fear, through sinful 
hatred; and much of it through habit. Many have 
so long thrown stones at us that it has become a 
habit to do so. The rather Pharisaic attitude that 
many public men at the North have assumed toward 



120 



The New South: 



us has greatly embarrassed and arrested our efforts 
to discover our faults and to amend them. But all 
this only furnishes a reason for beginning the soon- 
er and trying the harder. What is really good — 
and there is much that is good — let us stand by, and 
make it better if we can. 

There are some unpleasant things that ought to 
be said. They are on my conscience. "Will you 
bear with me while I point out some of the weaker 
points in our social make-up — some of the more 
serious lacks in our development? 

First, then, let us endeavor to overcome our in- 
tense provincialism. We are too well satisfied with 
ourselves. We think better of ourselves than the 
facts of our history and our present state of prog- 
ress justify. Some of us are nearly of the opinion 
that the words "the South" are a synonym for uni- 
verse. As a people we have not enough felt the 
heart-beat of the world outside of us. We have 
been largely shut off* from that world. Slavery did 
this, and this suggests another reason for gratitude 
that it exists no more. On this point I will add 
only one word more. Had we been less provincial, 
less shut in by and with our own ideas, had we 
known the world better, we would have known 
ourselves better, and there would have been no war 
in 1861. 

Secondly, there is avast mass of illiteracy among 
us. There is white as well as black illiteracy. 
There are multiplied thousands who can neither 
read nor write. They must be taught. 

Thirdly, let us recognize our want of a literature. 



Gratitude, Amendment, Hope. 121 



We have not done much in this line of things. It 
is too obvious to dispute about, it is too painful to 
dwell upon. 

Fourthly, let us wake up to our want of educa- 
tional facilities. Our public-school system is pain- 
fully inadequate. Our colleges and universities are 
unendowed, and they struggle against fearful odds 
in their effort to do their work. We are one hun- 
dred years behind the Eastern and Middle States. 
We are also behind many of the new States of the 
West. 

Fifthly, consider how behindhand we are with 
our manufacturing interests. And remember that 
nature never did more to furnish a people with the 
conditions necessary to successful manufactures. 
Does any one say, We lack capital? I answer, No, 
my friend, it was always so. It was so when we 
had capital. I have thought of these things a great 
deal. I have been placed where I was obliged to 
think of them, and I have reached this conclusion 
with perfect confidence of its correctness: Our pro- 
vincialism, our want of literature, our lack of edu- 
cational facilities, and of manufactures, like our 
lack of population, are all explained by one fact and 
one word — slavery. But for slavery, Georgia would 
be as densely peopled as Rhode Island. Wherefore, 
among many other reasons, I say again, I thank 
God that it is no more among us! 

I mention, lastly, some traits of character we should 
mltivate. 

First, the humble but all-prevailing virtues of in- 
dustry and economy in business. There should be 



122 



The New South: 



no non-producing classes among us— no wasting 
classes. The Northern people have more money 
than the Southern people, chiefly for the reason that 
they work more and save more* 

Secondly, let us cultivate the sentiments and hab- 
its of political and social toleration. This is sorely 
needed among us. We need to feel that a man may 
vote against us and be our friend; we need to feel 
that we can be his friend although we vote against 
him. 

Thirdly, let us cultivate respect for all law and 
authority as God's appointment* This is not a 
characteristic quality of our people. The educating 
influences of many generations have been unfavor- 
able to the development of this sentiment as a men- 
tal habit, or, rather, as a mental characteristic. We 
must plant ourselves and bring up our children on 
the platform of St. Paul and St. Peter, as read and 
considered in the beginning of this discourse. Law, 
authority, we must reverence and obey as the ordi- 
nance of God. 

Fourthly, let us cease from politics as a trust and a 
trade. Our duty of citizenship we must perform, 
but we should look no longer to political struggles 
as the means of deliverauce from all our difficulties. 
If we succeed we would be disappointed. Political 
success may enrich a few place-hunters, who ride 
into office upon the tide of popular enthusiasm; 
but it will bring little reward to the masses of the 
people. 

There is no help for it; if we prosper, we must 
work for it. Our deliverance will come through 



Gratitude, Amendment, Hope. 



123 



millions of hard licks, and millions of acts of self- 
denial, through industry, economy, civil order, and 
the blessing of God upon obedience. 

Finally, let us look forward. Hitherto I have 
spoken before some of you of the South of the fut- 
ure. Again I say, Look forward! I do the heroic 
dead no injustice. But the only rational way in 
which we can emulate their virtues is to live for the 
country they died for. We are not called on to die 
for it, but to live for it; believe me, good friends, a 
much harder thing to do. 

We should not forget what General Lee said to 
our General Gordon when it was all over: "We 
must go home and cultivate our virtues." Lee did 
that. He forthwith set himself to doing good. It 
is a good example. We are to do the work of to- 
day, looking forward and not backward. We have 
no divine call to stand eternal guard by the grave 
of dead issues. Here certainly we may say, "Let 
the dead bury their dead." 

My friends, my neighbors, and my pupils, I de- 
clare to you to-day my hope is, that in twenty years 
from now, the words "the South" shall have only 
a geographical significance. 

If any ask, " Why do you say such things here 
to-day?" I answer, Because I remember who are 
here, and I consider what they are to do and to be 
when we are gone hence. 

I have spoken what I solemnly believe to be the 
truth. Moreover, the time has fully come when 
these truths should be spoken by somebody; and I 
try to do my part, persuaded that before many years 



124 



The Hew South. 



there will happily be no longer any occasion or need 
for them to be spoken. 

There is no reason why the South should be de- 
spondent. Let us cultivate industry and economy, 
observe law and order, practice virtue and justice, 
walk in truth and righteousness, and press on with 
strong hearts and good hopes. The true golden 
day for the South is yet to dawn. But the light is 
breaking, and presently the shadows will flee away. 
Its fullness of splendor I may never see; but my 
children will see it, and I wish them to get ready 
for it while they may. 

There is nothing weaker or more foolish than 
repining over an irrevocable past, except it be de- 
spairing of a future to which God invites us. Good 
friends, this is not 1860; it is 1880. Let us press 
forward, following the pillar of cloud and of fire 
always. With health and peace, with friends and 
homes, with civil liberty and social order, with na- 
tional prosperity and domestic comfort, with boun- 
tiful harvests — with all these blessings, and good 
hope of heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord, let 
ns all lift up our voices in the glad psalm of praise 
and thanksgiving: " praise the Lord, all ye na- 
tions: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful 
kindness is great toward us; and the truth of the 
Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord." 



"OCCUPY TILL I COME." 

[COMMENCEMENT SUNDAY, EMORY COLLEGE, JUNE 26, 1881.j 



"And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, 
and said unto them, Occupy till I come." Luke xix. 13. 

JERICHO was the chief city of the valley of the 
Jordan. On his last visit to Jerusalem our 
Lord passed through Jericho, where he probably 
spent the night. The whole land was ringing with 
the fame of his mighty works and mightier words. 
At this time he opened the eyes of blind Bartimeus, 
and raised the popular interest to the highest pitch. 
As he passed out of the city a great multitude of 
people thronged his steps. 

Among those whom curiosity had excited was a 
Jew, Zaccheus by name, one of the chief of the Ro- 
man tax-gatherers. He had amassed fortune, and 
was perhaps the best hated man in Jericho. For 
while the Jews hated the Roman government and 
abhorred its tax-laws, they were especially bitter 
against those of their own race who accepted office 
under their despised conquerors. 

You are familiar with the story of Christ's visit 
to the house of this chief publican, and it need not 
be recited here. 

The parable of the pounds, in which my text ap- 
pears, was delivered at the table of Zaccheus. It was 
primarily addressed to Christ's impatient disciples 

(125) 



126 



Occupy till I Come. 



and followers who were looking, with clamorous 
eagerness, for him to assert his kingdom and to re- 
store the vanished luster of David's house. But its 
great lessons are for all men of all times. The par- 
able takes its special complexion from the business 
world, of which Zaccheus was the chief representa- 
tive in that company. 

Let us consider, in a brief outline of statement, 

I. The doctrine of the text. 

1. Here is the doctrine of stewardship. "He gave 
them ten pounds.'' 

But he gave upon conditions — "occupy." And 
not for themselves— -"occupy till I come/' then we 
will take account of your trading. 

" Every good and perfect gift cometh down from 
above." Whatever we have is of God's bestow- 
ment. Every power of body or mind; every influ- 
ence, whether growing out of social or official posi- 
tion; every opportunity, whether created by wealth 
or learning — in a word, all that we claim as our 
own is God's gift to us, and it is a gift upon condi- 
tions, to be used under law. 

We have no absolute right to any thing; we have 
no independent claim; we have no authority to 
keep, to use, or to dispose of any "talent" whatso- 
ever, whether of time, or genius, or learning, or 
money, or influence, except in accordance with the 
will of the Giver. Speaking after the manner of 
men, we may say that all deposited in our care is 
in the nature of a trust-fund. It must be used in a 
certain way, and it must not be alienated from the 
purpose for which it is set apart. 



Occupy till I Come. 



127 



2. Nothing can be plainer — the Giver requires his 
own with usury. 

To each of his "ten servants" — that is, to every 
human being — the Lord says, "Occupy — use — till 
I come." The figure is taken from money invested 
in business that it may be increased. He says not, 
Spend as you will, wasting the very capital itself. 
The command is, "Trade with it." "Till I come" 
intimates account-taking at the end. To those serv- 
ants who did trade with their lord's money so as 
to increase the sum of it, he says, " Well, thou good 
and faithful servant." He is approved and reward- 
ed for his wise and profitable trading. The lord 
is not content with getting back his own. Hear 
the plea of the unfaithful and wicked servant, whose 
fault is that he had done nothing: "And another 
came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which 
I have kept laid up in a napkin; for I feared thee, 
because thou art an austere man; thou takest up 
that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou 
didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of 
thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked 
servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere 
man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping 
that I did not sow; wherefore then gavest not 
thou my money into the bank, that at my coming 
I might have required mine own with usury? 
And he said unto them that stood by, Take from 
him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten 
pounds. (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath 
ten pounds.) For I say unto you, That unto every 
one which hath, shall be given; and from him that 



128 



Occupy till I Come. 



hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away 
from him." 

Simply holding one's own, as the phrase is, does 
not meet the case; increase there must be. In busi- 
ness life we count him unsuccessful who has, at the 
end, only what he began with. To be counted suc- 
cessful, the business man must not simply not waste 
his capital, nor barely keep it — he must increase it. 
The man who winds up his life like the unfaithful 
servant, with only the one pound he started with, is 
a failure. When a man's stewardship ends, he 
should have something to show for it — there must 
be some increment of his own. 

3. Fidelity in our stewardship is obedience to the 
law of life. God has constituted the world on this 
principle. There is life in obedience; death in dis- 
obedience. It is no mere arbitrary arrangement 
that all the gifts of God are bestowed as trusts; that 
they are to be used for the Giver — used upon con- 
ditions and under law. It is not merely that the 
Supreme Ruler will not part with his own; it is 
that his gifts cannot be truly and happily ours un- 
less they be received and used as trusts bestowed for 
a time of reckoning. We cannot conceive of any 
other adjustment that would be good for us or for 
others related to us. 

Man is neither strong, nor wise, nor good enough 
to be trusted with the absolute ownership or control 
of the pounds, or talents. The broadest minded 
man who ever lived cannot draw out a plan of life 
for himself. The subject is so vast and complicated 
that the Infinite Mind alone can grasp and master it. 



Occupy till I Come. 



129 



There is no greater folly than the folly of him 
who says, 66 1 do my own thinking on this subject; 
I am my own master; I am my own lawgiver; I 
will this; I forbear to will this." If untaught 
children need the guidance of a wise teacher as to 
both the subjects and methods of their studies; if a 
mere boy does not even know the names of books 
that are good for him; if the illiterate cannot devise 
a wise course of college or university studies; if in 
all our little affairs of daily life there is need of in- 
struction and apprenticeship, how much more does 
man need that an Infinite Intelligence lay down the 
laws of all life and conduct. A mere man can no 
more think out a complete and wise plan of life, 
unaided by higher wisdom, than he could think out 
the whole mechanism of the universe. 

Whoever undertakes to live on his own plans 
finds them lacking at a thousand points. He is 
utterly helpless in the attempt to execute them; 
they are self-clestructive. 

Moreover, weak and ignorant though he may be, 
he is yet too strong to be left without authority. 
There must be over him authority; there must be 
in his heart the sense of responsibility to an Infinite 
Power. Any less power is inadequate. Only the 
consciousness of God's claims upon us can keep 
man in his place — can make him true to his orbit. 
Alas! even this is not enough in multiplied thou- 
sands of lives. In our text is one who would not 
use his pound as the Giver directed. 

Let us observe that the Absolute Ruler has so 
adjusted his government and the nature of man that 
9 



130 



Occupy till I Come. 



while he retains ownership of the pounds bestowed 
upon him, that while he lays down the law as to 
their wise use, he yet leaves man perfectly free in 
the management. He goes into a far country; he 
says, " Occupy till I come." As if he had said, 
"This pound is mine; I trust it to your hands for 
a time; I tell you to trade with it; but I leave it 
to you to obey or not. I will return and take ac- 
count." 

This liberty in the use of the gifts is itself one 
of the highest. The very liberty which makes re ? 
sponsibility possible is itself a most royal gift. He 
who uses his liberty so as to obey the law of life— 
so as to work out God's plan of life — he is the freest 
of men, yet the completest of servants. 

God no more relinquishes the government of men 
than he does of the material universe. But there 
is infinite difference in the nature of his govern 
ment. In the material universe there can be no 
disobedience to law; the laws of gravity and chem- 
ical affinity are self-enforcing. There can be no 
resistance. In these realms there is no self-centered 
will that lifts itself up and says, "I will not do this, 
I will do that." 

A man cannot be governed on any such scheme — 
upon any system of mere force. So governed, he 
could not be a man. A clod, a tree he might be, 
but not a man. Our globe is under law, but not a 
law of stewardship. Its Maker says not to it, " Oc- 
cupy till I come." It was made for man, and the 
law that controls it is absolute. It must fill its place 
and move on in its path. Man is placed on it to 



Occupy till I Come. 



131 



work out his destiny. And God says to him, " Oc- 
cupy till I come." Liberty is necessary here; with- 
out it there is no responsibility, no character. The 
globe gives no account-— it has no responsibility; man 
must give account, for he can choose. 

Obedience to this law of stewardship is life; dis- 
obedience is death. It is set forth in the text in 
vivid, dramatic form. The faithful servants are 
raised to thrones; the unfaithful are destroyed. 

Let us now consider some 

Corollaries that follow from the doctrine of stewards 
ship. 

1. The doctrine is of universal application. 

It applies to all men in all times and conditions. 
It applies to all their affairs, great and small, per- 
sonal and relative. It applies to the whole of hu- 
man life, and not to a part of it only. As if limited, 
(1) by certain places; (2) certain times; (3) certain 
employments. 

This doctrine does not recognize the ordinary dis- 
tinction between things secular and things religious; 
it claims the whole of man's life, with all its pow- 
ers, for Ood. I do not say that there is no differ- 
ence between Sunday and Monday, between the 
church and the store. It is a great and ruinous 
•error to conclude that because we are to serve God 
always and everywhere that therefore the peculiar 
duties that belong to the Sabbath and the house of 
worship are useless, or to be slightly esteemed. Dr. 
Arnold, of Rugby, says, in one of his lectures on 
"Christian Life," on this very point: 

" Men have said that they were in all their actions 



132 



Occupy till I Come. 



of ordinary life doing Christ's will; that they en- 
deavored always to be promoting some good object; 
and that the peculiar services of religion, as they 
are called, were useless, inasmuch as in spirit they 
are worshiping God always. This is a great error; 
because, as a matter of fact, it is false. AVe may 
safely say that no man ever did keep his heart right 
with God in his ordinary life: that no one ever be- 
came one with Christ, and Christ with him, without 
seeking Christ where he reveals himself ; it may not 
be more really, but to our weakness far more sensi- 
bly, than in the common business of daily life. We 
may be happy if we can find Christ there, after we 
have long sought him and found him in the way 
of his own ordinances, in prayer, and in his holy 
communion. Even Christ himself, when on earth, 
though his whole day was undeniably spent in do- 
ing the will of his Heavenly Father, although to 
him doubtless God was ever present in the common- 
est acts no less than in the most solemn ; yet even 
he, after a day spent in all good works, desired a 
yet more direct intercourse with God, and was ac- 
customed to spend a large portion of the night in 
prayer." 

But this I urge: the obligation to observe the 
duties of the Sabbath, and to perform the duties 
peculiar to the house of God, is not higher, or in 
any sense more complete, than is the obligation to 
do the work of Monday, whether in store, or school, 
or work-shop, or field, or wherever man's duty car- 
ries him. with an eye single to the glory of God. 
As says St. Paul, " Whatsover ye do in word or 



Occupy till I Come. 



133 



deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving 
thanks to God and the Father by him." We must 
not disconnect our Bible-reading, our prayers, our 
communion, our public or social or private devo- 
tions, from our daily occupations — from the common 
portions of our lives. Rightly understood and faith- 
fully used, there is no want of harmony between our 
duty in church and our duty in the place of daily 
labor, between the duties peculiar to the holy Sab- 
bath and the duties of the other six days of the 
week. Very far from it; they are in perfect har- 
mony, and are necessary to each other, like those 
double stars, of which astronomers tell us, that re- 
volve about a common center. If one were gone, 
the other would lose its center, and, of necessity, 
find a new and alien orbit, or else, destroying and 
destroyed, rush lawless through the heavens. 

He who is unfaithful to his Sabbath duties cannot 
be faithful in his six days' work, as he who is un- 
faithful in his six days cannot rightly render his 
Sabbath service. He who is negligent of the duty 
he owes in the house of God cannot render com- 
plete service in the place of labor, as he who is un- 
faithful in the place of labor cannot render accept- 
able service in the place of prayer and praise. In 
a word, he who does not try to live as a Christian 
on all days and in all places cannot be a true Chris- 
tian on any clay or in any place. The specific du- 
ties appropriate to certain days, and certain places, 
and certain emplojmients, have their obligation and 
sanction, not in the days, the places, or the employ- 
ments, but in our relation to God. The obligation 



134 



Occupy till I Come. 



itself is as perfect, as binding, as solemn for one 
day as another, for one place as another, for one 
employment as another. We may illustrate from a 
simple and common case. A householder employs 
a servant to do many different things, but the obli- 
gation to do any one thing has the same basis as the 
obligation to do any other thing. 

What I plead for is a place for Christ' } s throne in his 
own world. He made it all; he upholds it all — "by 
him all things subsist;" he redeemed it all, and it is 
all his by sacred and divine rights. But ignorance, 
custom, conventionalism, fanaticism would rob him 
of by far the greater part of Ins own kingdom. The 
robbery is not less complete if done under some 
plea of peculiar and excessive loyalty in that part 
of his kingdom in which he is recognized. The 
man who vexes his house with painful exactness in 
Sabbath observances, but lives during the following 
six days according to a law of his own devising, is 
as really disloyal to his King as is the man who 
observes no Sabbath at all. I do not plead for a 
relaxation in the obligation that binds us to perform 
our Sabbath duties, but that we recognize as of 
equal authority our obligation to fidelity to our trust 
every other day. I do not ask that men think less 
reverently of the sanctuary, but that they remem- 
ber and recognize Christ's claim upon their loyal 
service in every place. I do not ask that preachers 
of the gospel think less solemnly of their responsi- 
bilities, of their obligations to lead pure and useful 
lives, but that every man recognize an equal obli- 
gation. 



Occupy till I Come. 



135 



There can be no question that by various devices 
and through the influence of personal habits of 
thought and of conduct, and through the customs 
of society, the majority of men have managed to 
take away and. isolate, in greater or less degree, the 
larger portion of their lives from the dominion of 
our Lord. Some have done this under the delusions 
of ignorance, imagining that Christ does not con- 
cern himself about the common labors and business 
concerns of life; others under "the foolish and 
hypocritical pretense that they are too trifling and 
too familiar to be mixed with the thought of things 
so solemn."' Men have revised our Lord's parable 
of the leaven hid in the meal that the whole lump 
may be leavened; they would confine the leaven to 
some little corner of the meal, taking care that it 
does not spread through the whole mass. The heav- 
enly light of religion, which its Author designed to 
light up all the world, they would shut up in special 
places, or, if they venture with it into the streets 
and busy places of life, they must hide it under cov- 
ers, or obscure it by smoked or colored glass. The 
divine grace of holy living, that God designs to con- 
serve the whole of human life as a saving salt in 
the earth, they would lock away in cloisters or other 
receptacles for preserving instead of using religion. 
There are no greater follies; there are few greater 
sins. 

Dr. Arnold uses the illustration furnished by some 
heathen people, converted only in name, to set forth 
the folly and sin of such exclusion of Christ from a 
part of our lives. When they came to be baptized 



136 



Occupy till I Come. 



they were careful to keep the right-arm out of the 
water, that it might not be brought under the 
authority of Christ; they would keep that — their 
"sword-hand" — that with it they might, without 
sin, wreak upon their enemies works of hatred and 
vengeance which, in. their baptism, they had prom- 
ised to renounce! "Is it too much," he inquires, 
" to say that something like this unbaptized right- 
arm is still to be met with amongst us? that men 
too often leave some of their very most important 
concerns — what they call by way of eminence their 
business, their management of their own money af- 
fairs, and their conduct in public matters — wholly 
out of the control of Christ's law?" 

This unbaptized right-arm in the Church, and in our 
Christian civilization to-day, is what men call the secu- 
lar world. 

I believe most solemnly that the great need of our 
times is the utter abolishment in Christian think- 
ing, not of a mere speculative line of distinction, 
but of a high and mighty wall which we have 
built along the whole frontier of our every -clay 
life, separating it from our religious life as the Chi- 
nese wall was intended to separate the "flowery 
kingdom" of the Celestials from savage deserts and 
more savage tribes beyond. For the distinction 
is arbitrary, and of human invention. The only 
distinction that exists is in the difference in duties 
proper to special times and places; there is abso- 
lutely no distinction in the essential nature of God's 
claim upon us, or in the spirit of reverence and 
fidelity in which our service is to be rendered. 



Occupy till I Come. 



137 



Furthermore, the distinctions we have invented have 
their real origin rather in a secret desire to have more 
freedom from God's claim upon us in what we call sec- 
ular life than to magnify his claim upon our religious 
life. It is not that we seek to elevate the standard 
of religion in our Sabbath life, but that we would 
lower it in our week-day life. 

I do not forget that our Lord, as well as his apos- 
tles, give us many solemn warnings against con- 
formity to the " world." But many mistake the 
meaning of the term as employed in the New Tes- 
tament. It does not mean human society, but the 
Christless spirit in society; not the six days, but 
the Christless spirit in all days; not business, but 
Christless living in all things. 

There is much confusion of thought, if not down- 
right nonsense, in the use that many persons make 
of the word " worldliness." It is not business; it 
is not money-making, or money-spending; it is not 
society; it is not politics; it is not this or that par- 
ticular form of week-day life and activity — but any 
and all life that rules Christ out of itself. "Occupy 
till I come" covers all human life. Christ asserts his 
perfect claim upon all our energies and all our time. 
We are as much under his law in business as in 
worship; in the field or work-shop, or in our social 
reunions, as in the closet, or around the sacramental 
table. 

The invention of a distinction between things 
sacred and things secular that neither reason, nor 
nature, nor revelation recognizes, accounts for much 
wrong-doing and sin. For it has given us two utter- 



138 



Occujpy till I Come). 



ly different worlds, with different conventional tests 
and measures of right and wrong. "Whereas there 
is one world only for Christ's servants, just as there 
is one Lawgiver and one law. This invented dis- 
tinction is supposed to give men margin on certain 
days, in certain placeSj and in certain employments, 
for living according to their own wills, as if God's 
will were suspended and man's obligation intermit- 
tent. People who set up this distinction allow 
themselves to do things on work-days they condemn 
as exceedingly sinful on hoT) 7 -days. This false think- 
ing allows itself a spirit and purpose of life on Mon- 
day that damns on Sunday; allows in business what 
it shrinks from in horror in what it calls religion. 

It has a huge " right-arm unbaptized," with which 
it proposes to work out its own ungoverned will in 
regions where it recognizes neither God nor Christ. 
And with this arm it crucifies Christ afresh and in 
his holy temple. 

II. The doctrine of the text dignifies and makes 
sacred, all of human life, the lowliest and the loftiest. 

It is to me inconceivable that God should have 
constituted the world in such way that the work we 
must do to live at all — to get bread, and clothing, 
and shelter — can, if rightly done, be unfriendly to 
our highest life, the life of religion, of communioti 
with God, of oneness with Christ. As if a man 
should build a vast and complicated factory and fill 
it with machinery to make cloth, and yet so adjust 
it all that just six-sevenths of its power antagonizes 
the seventh ; that his carding and spinning machines 
destroy his looms; that the very end for which it 



Occupy till I Come. 



139 



all exists should become impossible whenever the 
machinery is put in motion. 

What are " means of grace?" Most persons will 
answer, "Prayer, the reading of the Bible, the 
preaching of the word, devotional meetings, and 
such like practices and observances." And so they 
are; but they are not all, nor the half, nor the 
greater part. Work is a means of grace, whether 
at the carpenter's bench, the blacksmith's forge, the 
farmer's plow, the student's desk, the mother's 
work-room, the servant's kitchen — all work needful 
to be done in this world is an essential part of God's 
appointed means of making us what he would have 
us to be, true children in the likeness of Christ his 
Son. Till we understand this we do not know the 
true law of human life, the real secret of religion. 

I do not mean simply that our business affairs 
may be carried on in such way that they do not an- 
tagonize and destroy our religion, but something 
much more important; I mean that we cannot be 
religious in any true sense, or on any broad and 
high plan, if we do not so conduct our business 
affairs. Just as the physician when he enjoins ex- 
ercise does not mean it is consistent with health, but 
that there cannot be health without it. He does 
not say, You may work and be well, but, Without 
work you cannot be well; without work you can- 
not even live. If we would be truly religious, it 
is as indispensable that we conduct our business 
affairs in the spirit of the gospel as that we pray 
reverently. 

What is holy ground? What are holy-clays? All 



140 



Occupy till I Come. 



ground is holy, and all days are hoi}', if used in the 
name and in the spirit of Christ our Lord. 

Pardon me when I say there is in much of our 
current talk about these things, no little pious slang 
and cant. When we hear men denouncing the 
world we live in and our state of existence as a 
" waste howling wilderness; " when they seek, by 
rhetorical declamations, to degrade this present life, 
they are talking worse than nonsense. It is an 
affront to the sovereign and all-wise Creator who 
made the world and placed us in it as the best pos- 
sible place for a time. He said, when he made it, 
"It is very good." Not simply good in itself, but 
good for man. This world is not a waste howling 
wilderness; it is beautiful; it is our home; we love 
it, and we ought to love it. Our all-wise and loving 
Father has taken infinite pains to make this world 
the most suitable for us of all places in his universe. 
If this world is no f riend to grace to help as on to God, 
it is our abuse of it that has made it unfriendly — the 
trouble is in us. If we "use this world as not abus- 
ing it," it is in all things to us as a friend to grace. 
And our business life — the occupations and cares 
that the great primal law of labor make necessary 
for us — all this is also good for us, if we are wise 
enough to learn, and faithful enough to obey God. 

This world, this life, with all the possibilities they 
afford, are intrusted to us to use for their great Pro- 
prietor and Lord. He bids us receive them and 
" occupy till his coming" to take account of our 
stewardship. 

There can be no question that this world, and the 



Occupy till I Come. 



141 



business life that belongs to it, is absolutely necessary 
to rightly fit us for the next. We cannot truly pre- 
pare for the next world without using this world. The 
best preparation for heaven is the right use of this 
world and this life. Jesus Christ did not teach that 
cloisters are means of grace; he lived among his 
fellow-men. He who lives six days as if there were 
no divine claim upon him, pretending to serve God 
the seventh day, abuses this world, and to him it is 
no longer a field in which to train himself for higher 
and better things — it becomes his burying-ground; he 
sinks his true life by not recognizing the true uses 
of this world and its work. He who is secular on 
secular days, and religious only on religious days, 
dissevers this life from the next. To him this world, 
instead of being a training-school to prepare him 
for heavenly and immortal things, becomes a final 
finishing -school. He looks not beyond it, and there- 
fore misses its real significance. And beyond it he 
never goes nor rises. 

We shall hardly get to the bottom of the solemn 
words of our text, " Occupy till I come." He will 
come — come to take account of our stewardship. 
For his coming and account-taking we cannot get 
ready by burying our pound and keeping it for him 
— as if the very work to which he assigned us were, 
in some way, contaminating — as if the very thing 
he commands us to do were the one thing that unfits 
us for his coming. His words are fearful to those 
indolent and conceited souls who choose their own 
way and seek to avoid responsibility by dodging it: 
" Take from him the pound, and give it to him that 



Occupy till I Come. 



hath ten pounds. For I say unto you, That unto 
every one that hath shall be given ; and from him 
that hath not. even that he hath shall be taken 
away from him ! " 

Young men, if you would be ready for your Lord's 
coming, you must take him into your every-day life. 
You must take him into your business; into your 
shops and stores, your fields and offices, your labors 
and your aspirations, your private and public life. 
AVhere he cannot go with you, you must not go at 
all. George Macdouald says truly : " There is a holy 
way of doing business, and little as business men 
think it, that is the standard by which they must 
be tried, for their judge in business affairs is not 
their own trade or profession, but the Man who 
came to convince the world concerning right and 
wrong, and the choice between them." 

The best and only true preparation for the life to 
come is found in the godly use of the life that now 
is. The true watcher for his Lord's coming is the 
true worker of whom Christ says, " Blessed are 
those servants whom when his Lord comes he shall 
find so doing." 

An extreme illustration of the folly and sin against 
which I would warn you has been several times fur- 
nished by certain lunatic pre-adventists, who. assum- 
ing that they had unlocked the secrets of the divine 
mind, have, at different times, fixed upon certain 
days for the ending of this world and all its affairs. 
And what sort of preparation do they make? It is 
seen in the neglect of the plainest duties of life; in 
idling when they should have been working; in 



Occupy till I Come. 



143 



singing wild and fanatical songs about descending 
chariots when they should have been driving their 
plows; in making shroud-like things they called 
" ascension-robes" instead of making garments for 
the poor and friendless. This sort of thing is absurd 
and revolting to the last degree. But it is only less 
absurd than the notions of those religionists who 
substitute certain emotional raptures for a life truly 
" hid with Christ in God ; " who talk much of faith in 
Christ but have no good works to prove their faith; 
who, to use Edwards Irving's stinging phrase, hunt 
for the basis of their religion in their nervous system, 
and not in the law and will of Christ Jesus the Lord. 

Let me make the test sharp and pungent. We 
will try ourselves by an infallible criterion. Jesus 
was about thirty years old when he entered upon 
his public ministry. Till that time, except a short 
visit to Jerusalem in boyhood, he had spent his 
whole life in the retirement of a little Galilean town 
of small importance and sinister reputation. What 
did he do and in what spirit did he do it during all 
those thirty years? Was he an idler, a gentlemanly 
loafer, a mere hanger-on about the house of his re- 
puted father, the industrious Joseph? The thought 
seriously entertained would be profanation. During 
those thirty years he was "about his Father's busi- 
ness," and just as really when he drove the plane 
or the saw in the shop of carpenter Joseph as when 
he stood among the doctors of the law in the tem- 
ple, both hearing and asking them questions. For 
J esus was a worker, a carpenter, a builder of houses, 
as Joseph was. "Is not this the carpenter?" one 



144 



Occupy till I Come. 



asked, when lie wondered at his works and his wis- 
dom. The question carried its own answer. Bat 
were there no allusion whatever to his occupations, 
it is simply unthinkable that Jesus, the exemplar 
of men, spent thirty years in soft -handed and 
well-shaded indolence. I love to think of his face 
browned by the Syrian sun, and of his hands hard- 
ened and horny with daily toil. 

In what spirit did Jesus do his carpenter's w T ork? 
Try to think of him as doing careless work! You 
cannot. How then can you think of any carpenter, 
who is Christ's servant, doing careless work? Or 
cf any man, in any calling, doing careless or dishon- 
est work? Jesus did the best work he could do; he 
did it as in the presence of his Father, as unto the 
Lord. And there is no other way. 

It is said of Hugh Miller that when he was a 
stone-mason at Cromarty, he "put his conscience in 
every stone he laid." That was religion. Thomas 
Carlyle draws a picture of his father, James Carlyle, 
building the stone piers of a bridge so thoroughly 
and conscientiously that forty years afterward the 
old man looked upon them with satisfaction as wor- 
thy expressions of a conscientious man's life and 
labor. There was more Christ in old James Car- 
lyle's stone piers than in all his famous son's denun- 
ciations of affectation and cant. 

I cannot reconcile my mind to the too prevalent 
view that the great primal law of labor is a curse. 
The example of Christ, his spirit, the teaching of 
his gospel, and the experience of his people, show 
us that this much-despised law holds the richest 



Occupy till I Come. 



145 



blessing for man. God has so arranged the scheme 
of the world and of human life that what we must 
do to subsist is just what we most need to do to 
achieve the noblest and best results in ourselves, 
and for both worlds. The gospel makes labor — the 
lowliest — a blessing. If our perishing bodies bind 
us to the dust, God has so adjusted the demands and 
necessities of nature and the provisions and proc- 
esses of grace that nature becomes servant to grace. 
In the very toils necessary to support our bodies 
that die we find growth and blessing for our souls 
that never die. 

III. Our text reproves and checks impatience in our 
work — " Occupy till I come." 

True faith waits as well as works and dares. He 
will come, although the tempter whispers sometimes, 
" Our Lord delayeth his coming," and suggests re- 
laxation in our toils and in our watching. 

In the world into which you now enter, young 
men, you will have need of a faith that can endure 
till the end come. I beg you think on these weighty 
words, "Occupy till I come" If you do your full 
duty as men who recognize your true relation to 
God there will come times and occasions that will 
try your faith. If you do your full duty to Christ 
there will come occasions when many friends will 
part company with you, when you may find your- 
selves alone with Christ. Be it so; remember the 
words he spoke at the publican's table, " Occupy 
till I come." He will come. 

IV. Christ rewards such working and waiting like a 
king. 

10 



146 



Occupy till I Come. 



There is nothing meager about him, either in his 
plans or rewards. He intends us to live largely 
while we live in this world. But greater things 
await us if we are faithful to him. Let us read in 
the conclusion of this discourse what the Lord will 
say to the true and faithful ones who "occupy till 
he comes." 

"Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound 
hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, 
Well, thou good servant; because thou hast been 
faithful in a very little, have thou authority over 
ten cities." 

"And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound 
hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise unto 
him, Be thou also over five cities." 

Zaccheus was himself an appointee of the Roman 
Empire. He understood how the emperor had 
given kingdoms away. Herod held his crown by 
grace of Rome. What the Roman emperors gave 
in caprice became to him a faint but impressive illus- 
tration of the divine gifts of the one true King of 
the universe, who gives to those who share his toils 
and sufferings. He will return, and not as he came 
at first — in a lowly manger in Bethlehem. He will 
come in the clouds, glorious, majestic, victorious, 
with tens of thousands of his saints and holy angels. 
Then will he reward, in a kingly way, his faithful ones 
— the humblest and obscurest as well as the greatest 
and most illustrious of his servants and his friends. 

My dear young friends, if we do our work here 
in the spirit of Christ, if he share our labors with 
us, we shall reign with him forever and ever. 



THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. 



[A SERMON.-] 



" Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and pow- 
ers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work " 
(i. e., those good works due to government). Titus iii. 1. 

THE subject of this discourse is The Christian 
Citizen. These terms are brought together 
advisedly, for I am not about to speak of the Chris- 
tian simply, nor of the citizen simply, but of the 
Christian citizen — of his responsibilities and duties. 
I do not discuss, at this time, those moralities that 
are binding on us as men, but as members of a com- 
munity, living under the same government. The 
obligation to be truthful, honest, sober, chaste, in- 
dustrious, economical, charitable, useful — in a word, 
to be religious as individuals, is not to be argued at 
this time. My theme is: The responsibilities and 
duties that grow out of our relation to society, to 
law and order, to government. 

This is a proper theme for the pulpit, for religion 
concerns itself with all things that concern the wel- 
fare of man. Moreover, the duties of the citizen 
are Christian duties. All real duties are Christian 

* Preached before the students of Emory College and the 
citizens of Oxford, Ga., Jan. 9, 1881; and in Trinity Church, 
Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 30, 1881. 

(147) 



148 The Christian Citizen. 



duties; all duties have a divine warrant and foun- 
dation; whatever a man ought to do at all, he owes 
it to God to do. Beligion claims the w T hole life; its 
hand is laid upon all our powers. It is a fatal mis- 
take, and not less fatal because it is frequent, to sup- 
pose that part of our life belongs to God, and part 
of it to any other lord whatsoever. Many speak 
and act as if they belonged to God on Sunday in a 
sense they do not belong to him on Monday — as if 
they owed him an allegiance at the altar from which 
they are free in the workshop, in the counting-room, 
and at the ballot-box. 

The sort of distinction we are accustomed to make 
between things secular and things sacred is un- 
known to the word of God. It is a distinction in- 
vented — not, as some suppose, to preserve things 
sacred, but rather to secure greater license for indi- 
vidual preference in other things. I do not forget 
that some things are becoming on Sunday which 
would be out of place on Monday; that some things 
are right on Monday which would be wrong on Sun- 
day; that there are duties peculiar to the house of 
prayer, and other duties peculiar to the place of 
labor. Nevertheless, it is true, and it cannot be 
stated too strongly, that he who is truly a Christian 
on one day is a Christian on all days; that he who 
is truly a Christian in one place is a Christian in all 
places; that he who is truly a Christian in one re- 
lation is a Christian in all relations. If you doubt 
the soundness of these views, consider what St. Paul 
says: " Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye 
do, do all to the glory of God." And in another 



The Christian Citizen. 149 



place he says: " Whatsoever ye do in word, or deed, 
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." There are 
many passages in God's word that teach the same 
doctrine. If, now, there are duties that grow out 
of our citizenship, they are Christian duties, for we 
are the Lord's. 

I. Before discussing the responsibilities and duties 
of Christian citizenship, let us consider briefly the 
Bible doctrine of government. I will repeat substan- 
tially some thoughts presented to your attention in 
November last. "We may be sure that when we find 
just what this Bible doctrine of government is, we 
can then build our institutions upon a foundation 
that can never fail. 

Let me read two passages of Scripture, of broad 
scope and unmistakable meaning. I read first, Ro- 
mans xiii. 1-7. This is St. Paul's language. St. 
Peter gives us a statement not less distinct and em- 
phatic. I read 1 Peter ii. 13-18. There are other 
passages of like character, but these will suffice. 

Why should we obey law? Why should we seek 
to promote the efficiency and usefulness of the gov- 
ernment, whether municipal, State, or national — 
whether domestic, civil, or ecclesiastical — under 
which we live? What is the ground of our obliga- 
tion to be subject to " the powers that be "? to obey 
government? There can be no doubt as to the 
Bible doctrine on this subject. It may be stated 
only in outline at this time. 

1. God's will is the foundation of all law and au- 
thority, as he is the Source of all existence. 

2. God ordains government — that is, the thing, 



150 



The Christian Citizen. 



not the form. Those who are governed should de- 
termine the form. The texts just read are as appli- 
cable to one form as to another. 

3. Obedience to " the powers that be " is a duty, 
not only as to our rulers, but as to God, who is 
Lord and Governor of all. 

4. Let us observe closely — for it is a matter of 
vital importance — it is not to the king, or presi- 
dent, or governor, we owe obedience, but to the 
ruler; not simply to the highest, "the king as su- 
preme," but to all rulers; to "governors" also of 
every grade, as representing the highest; rather, as 
representing, under him, the law and government 
that are back of and above him — that is, to push 
the thought farther, but not too far, not merely 
the law and constitution of the State, but the divine 
law and constitution of the universe. Wherefore, 
St Paul says: "Render to all their dues; tribute to 
whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear 
to whom fear; honor to whom honor." St. Peter 
teaches the same doctrine. So does Moses. So 
does our Lord himself. 

The foundation -truth of the whole doctrine is 
this: Whosoever administers legitimate authority 
represents, in so far forth as his office and functions 
go, God. Men speak sometimes of " God's vicar- 
general." He has none — neither in king, nor pope, 
nor democracies. God's vicar, his representative, is 
government — all rightful government fulfilling his 
will. Just as the simplest, as well as the most com- 
plex, processes of Nature show forth the power, and 
the wisdom, and the good providence of God, so the 



The Christian Citizen. 151 



humblest office-bearer, enforcing the least of all laws 
that are in harmony with eternal righteousness, rep- 
resents the majesty and authority of the divine gov- 
ernment. The principle and the obligation are the 
same, whether it be the president, the emperor, the 
king, the governor, the council, the mayor, the local 
magistrate, the town-marshal, the parent, or the 
village school-teacher. In a word, whoever bears 
rightful rule does, in his sphere and office, whether 
it be great or small, represent the divine govern- 
ment. Hence, St. Paul says: " Whoso resisteth the 
power" — in things lawfully commanded — " resist- 
eth God." This makes office-bearing a most sacred 
thing — u not to be taken in hand unadvisedly, but 
reverently, discreetly, advisedly, and in the fear of 
God." 

(The right of amending bad laws; of seeking, by 
right methods, to change unsatisfactory administra- 
tions, or even the right of revolution — if it come to 
that — all guaranteed to our race by the Scriptures 
and by sound reason, it is not needful to discuss at 
this time. But it may be remarked that even revo- 
lution should have this basis — that it seeks obedi- 
ence to that which is the real law. Revolution 
becomes a duty when literal obedience would be 
real disobedience; for all authority and government 
should " make for righteousness," and all powers 
among men should be brought into accord with the 
highest and holiest — the will of God. " Children, 
obey your parents — in the Lord," expresses the 
principle and implies the limitation. There is no 
authority more sacred than the parental, but it 



152 



The Christian Citizen. 



must be exercised "in the Lord;" otherwise, au- 
thority is so perverted that obedience becomes dis- 
obedience.) 

II. In the light of the great principles set forth 
in the Scriptures, we may inquire concerning the 
nature of our obligation to obey law, to respect govern- 
ment — in a word, to perform the duties of citizenship. 

The Bible doctrine is: Our duties of citizenship 
are duties to God. I make bold to say, Most of our 
civil and political troubles have come of our forget- 
ting this truth. In a very large degree we have, in 
our vanity, and in the blindness born of vanity, sub- 
stituted vox populi for vox Dei. In some countries 
men talk superstitiously of the " divine right of 
kings; " in our country demagogues talk flippantly 
of the " divine rights of the people." They say, as 
a tribute to human pride, Vox populi, vox Dei — " The 
voice of the people is the voice of God." This de- 
pends — on the voice, what it utters. For, alas! vox 
populi is sometimes vox diabolL Let us ask soberly 
whether law is only vox populi; whether law has 
no higher sanctions than the w 7 ill of the majority; 
whether the ballot-box or Mount Sinai has the high- 
er claim upon conscience; whether our obligation to 
obey law is bottomed on the will of the people, or 
created by the will and enforced by the authority of 
God. My brethren, the will of God gives to law its 
authority and its sanctions, and the voice of the 
people creates no obligation except as it expresses 
the will of God. Instead of proudly and foolishly 
substituting vox populi for vox Dei, it is the best 
study and the noblest achievement of true states- 



The Christian Citizen. 



158 



manship to secure a " voice of the people " that 
echoes faithfully the " voice of God." 

III. Out of the principles and facts that have 
been pointed out grows the true doctrine of indi- 
vidual responsibility in citizenship. 

This doctrine is of transcendent importance in a 
system of government like ours — a system whose 
characteristic fact is universal suffrage. Where 
every man votes, it is needful — if we are to have 
the best results of elections, it is necessary — that 
every voter should realize his personal responsibil- 
ity in the exercise of his great power in determin- 
ing, by the ballot, the policy of a government and 
the fate of a people. 

So far as my duty as a citizen is concerned, the 
question is not, What ought one among many, one 
among millions, to do? but, What ought one, what 
ought J, to clo? The question, so far as respon- 
sibility is concerned, is personal — it is mine; so far 
as the influence of my vote goes, it is also yours. 
There will be, I think, no doubt in the mind of any 
hearer when I say we do not, as we ought, realize 
our individual responsibility as citizens of a coun- 
try, where the votes of the people determine the 
most important questions that affect our state in 
this world. 

Let me make my meaning as plain as possible. 
Let us suppose a case: The Legislature is, we may 
say, in session. A law most unwise in its provisions, 
and hurtful in its tendency, is introduced and passed. 
The whole people suffer. Suppose also that I voted 
for the member who brought this law forward, or 



154 



The Christian Citizen* 



for some one of the members who helped to pass it. 
Have I any responsibility in this case? Undoubt- 
edly. In so far as my vote enters into the history 
of this bad law, it is my law. Whether I voted for 
an unfit law-maker understanding^ or ignorantly, 
in either case I have a personal responsibility in the 
law that I can by no device escape. 

Let us change the illustration. A county officer, 
known as ordinary, is to be chosen. There are 
numbers of candidates. Suppose that, for any con- 
sideration, I vote for and so help to elect a man who 
lacks ability or integrity, or both, and that through 
the blunders or crimes of this ordinary, whom I have 
helped to elect, great wrongs are committed. It 
may turn out that a whole county is, in some way, 
robbed of its treasures, or that many widows and 
orphans are defrauded. Am I not responsible in 
this thing? Yea, verily. He is my ordinary. Sup- 
pose — to offer one more illustration where scores 
might be given — I help to make a justice of the 
peace of one who is ignorant, drunken, open to 
bribes, and that some friendless wretch suffers 
wrong at the hands of this justice — my justice, if 
you please. Am I blameless? Nay, verily. He is 
my justice. 

I have applied the doctrine of individual respon- 
sibility in only one direction — that of the exercise of 
the perilous right of suffrage; but it applies in all 
directions where our duties of citizenship are con- 
cerned. I cannot go farther into details at this 
point. But I commend the matter to your medita- 
tions. As it appears to me, there is hardly one 



The Christian Citizen. 



155 



thing so sorely needed among us at this time as the 
reawakening of the personal conscience in our rela- 
tion to government. 

IV. In order to discharge our individual respon- 
sibility to government, there must be perfect individual 
freedom. 

It is a mere truism to say, Without freedom there 
is no choice, and, therefore, no responsibility. But 
it needs restatement in its relations to the obliga- 
tions and duties of citizenship. Representative 
government without individual responsibility is an 
absurdity; responsibility without freedom is an im- 
possibility. 

When I say the voter must be free, I do not mean 
so obvious a thing as freedom from mere force; I 
mean his mind as well as his body must be free. 
Suppose a voter at the polls, ready to cast his ballot. 
How is that vote determined? by avarice, by ter- 
ror, by appetite, by hatred, by any influence that 
determines the decision against his judgment as to 
what is wise, and against his conscience as to what 
is right? That influence has mastered him, has un- 
fitted him for the office and duty of a voter. 

Please to observe that I am not attacking party 
organizations. Nothing is more certain than that 
parties will exist; few things are more desirable 
than that they should be useful to the State. But 
granting all that may truthfully be said in their 
favor, I yet affirm that our duty of citizenship, so 
far as voting is concerned, can in nowise be per- 
formed without freedom of choice and of action. 
If a party organization is to accomplish that for 



156 



The Christian Citizen. 



which it presumably exists — that for which it must 
exist in order to justify its existence at all — that is, 
the good of all the people — then, in order to accom- 
plish this good end, the individual must be free, ab- 
solutely free, to follow his own judgment and his 
own conscience. 

A citizen who has right views and right convic- 
tions on public questions, and who follows an en- 
lightened judgment and a good conscience, will 
generally vote w T ith some party (for there will al- 
ways be two parties, and sometimes more than two), 
but not because it is the party considered as such, 
but because it best interprets what, before God, he 
believes to be the need and duty of the hour. Else- 
wise he surrenders so much, not only of his per- 
sonal judgment, but of his personal conscience, to 
a power outside of himself — hence, surrenders not 
simply so much of his independence as a man, but 
of his value as a citizen. In such a case he does 
not truly vote— he only registers the opinion of 
others. 

Here let me say, If it shall ever come to pass that 
a party exists only for its own sake; if it holds to- 
gether only for the sake of the offices it can hold 
and the emoluments it can win; if it is used only as 
an instrument for the advancement of ambitious 
men — then such a party is truly described in the lan- 
guage of the street — it is indeed a "machine." It 
has no longer a claim upon the confidence or suf- 
frages of patriotic citizens; it can no longer offer a 
valid reason for its continued existence; it has for- 
feited its right to live; it is time that it should die, 



The Christian Citizen. 157 



and be buried out of the sight of men. But when a 
party seeks the good of the whole people, then let 
it offer its proofs, both in sound doctrine and in 
useful measures. The party which has the best 
proofs has the highest claims, and free, patriotic, 
and conscientious citizens will so decide. 

I do not at this time enlarge farther upon the 
necessity of free thought and honest judgment in 
all matters involving the citizen considered as a 
voter, but I beg you, my brethren, to meditate upon 
the relation between a perfectly discharged respon- 
sibility and a perfectly exercised freedom. 

V. Let us now consider the Christian citizen in some 
of his most important characters and duties. 

1. As a voter. 

(1) First of all, the Christian citizen (I speak of 
him as I believe he ought to be) will vote when 
measures are to be determined, and rulers are to be 
elected. Uo man charged by law with the duty of 
voting has a moral right to decline that duty. Ab- 
senting himself from the polls, refusing to vote, does 
not leave one in the position of having had nothing 
to do with an election. In a government like ours, 
a citizen qualified to vote cannot, by any sort of 
voluntary inaction, throw himself outside of the re- 
sponsibilities of a voter. If two or more men offer 
themselves for office, and the one least qualified is 
chosen, the citizen who declined to vote must share 
the responsibility of his election. Suppose a drunk- 
ard elected by a majority of one, when your Chris- 
tian voter, from indifference, or preoccupation, or 
fear, refused to cast his ballot. He cannot escape 



158 The Christian Citizen. 



the responsibility of the shame and the wrong; his 
one vote might, at least, have prevented that evil 
choice. 

I have mentioned the simplest case purposely; it 
is easy to enlarge and make applications. 

But this doctrine — that it is the citizen's duty, 
both to God and to men, to vote — should be preached 
and enforced till it becomes a matter not merely of 
party fealty, but of good conscience, to meet the re- 
sponsibilities and to perform the duties that belong 
to our right of citizenship. A great and lament- 
able cry is heard in our land that the country is 
cursed by unfit men in office. It is my deliberate 
judgment that these unfit men would not be in of- 
fice if tens of thousands of well-meaning but mis- 
taken citizens had not failed to cast their ballots as 
a good judgment and a good conscience would have 
determined. Let these non-voting citizens, whose 
tongues are not lacking in denunciations of the po- 
litical corruptions that oppress the whole people, 
w T hose neglect of one of the highest duties of citizen- 
ship has indirectly but effectively brought these 
woes upon us — let these non-voting citizens " re- 
pent and do their first works." There are enough 
of them to turn the scale in almost any important 
election, and, for the most part, their instincts would 
lead them to vote for the fittest men and measures. 
It is a hard thing to saj T , but it is true — there arc 
multitudes of Christian men w 7 hose consciences 
should lash them for their guilty indifference and 
inaction in this high duty of citizenship. Had 
these men stood in their lot and done their duty, 



The Christian Citizen. 



159 



there are many dark chapters in our political his- 
tory that would never have been written. 

(2) The true Christian citizen will not merely 
vote — he will vote on his judgment and conscience, as 
unto God. If you please, such a man will " vote as 
he prays/' He will " mix his religion with his poli- 
tics" just as he does with his buying and selling; 
that is, as a religious man, he will endeavor to do 
his whole duty, that he may keep " a conscience 
void of offense before God and men." What do I 
mean by " vote as he prays?" I will tell you. 
Your Christian citizen prays, as he is divinely com- 
manded to do, that the Sovereign Ruler would bless 
the land with good government. If his prayers are 
worth any thing, he will not go from his knees and 
vote against his judgment and against his con- 
science. No party exigencies can justify him in 
doing so insincere a thing; if he is a free man, no 
party discipline can compel him to do it. If there 
is any thing in his pra} r ers, he will not go from his 
knees and vote for a drunkard, a gambler, a liber- 
tine, a corrupter of men — no matter how brilliant 
his talents, nor how exalted his name. If two cor- 
rupt men are candidates, and there is no other, he 
will vote for neither. But he will vote, and for 
some man who is fit for office, if he receive only 
this one vote. Such a vote is not " thrown away;" 
it has its worth; it is a free and conscientious man's 
protest; it is a condemnation of vice; it is a com- 
mendation of virtue. Such a man may, for the 
time, be as solitary as John the Baptist when he 
first appeared preaching in the deserts of Judea — 



160 



The Christian Citizen. 



only " the voice of one crying in the wilderness." 
But it is a call to " repentance," and it is worth 
more to the country than the triumph of any party 
in the election of a corrupt man to "lord it over 
God's heritage." 

Please to observe, I am not talking of an inde- 
pendent party, but of an unspeakably better and 
more important thing — a manly and conscientious 
personal independence of parties. The Christian 
voter who does his duty does not merge his respon- 
sibility in his party; he does not surrender his free- 
dom to any demand that does not satisfy his con- 
science. 

There is a good deal said about the blessings " a 
new party " might bring to the country. What we 
want are men — free men, conscientious men — who 
will not, for any party, vote against their conscience. 
We want men who say, I am with my party when 
it serves the true interests of my country; but if my 
party favors vicious measures, or puts forward cor- 
rupt men, then it is my duty to my country and to 
my God to help to defeat my party. And if his par- 
ty be worth saving, he might say this also: It is my 
duty to my party to help to defeat it. For, in the 
long run, if free government is to continue to exist, 
triumph in wrong will bring death to any party. 
But this much, at least, is clear: A Christian citizen 
cannot desire the success of his party when success 
means the inauguration of vicious measures or the 
promotion of corrupt men; for a Christian man 
can no more rejoice in "triumphant iniquity" than 
he can be " a partaker of other men's sins." 



The Christian Citizen. 



161 



Nothing can be better for the politics of a coun- 
try, in which two parties of nearly equal strength 
contend for mastery, than a number of courageous 
and conscientious men, sufficient to hold the balance 
of power, of w^hom it is known that their allegiance 
to righteousness is stronger than their allegiance to 
party — men who can be depended on to vote with 
strict conscientiousness, and who cannot be depended 
on to vote with any party when it favors either men 
or measures that are unfriendly to the virtue and 
best interests of the whole people. Such men may 
be sneered at as " bolters," but it will be a glorious 
day for the country when there shall be a body of 
" bolters/' whom no party can buy, large enough to 
vote down the " floaters," whom any party can buy. 
In many elections these purchasable " floaters " now 
hold the balance of power; for their sake it is judged 
necessary to nominate rich men, or men who can 
command money, when important elections are to 
be held. There are enough good men, unpurchasa- 
ble men, in the country, who do not vote, to wrest 
from the vile hands of the easily-bought " floaters " 
the determining power in our elections. 

There need be no formal organization of such 
men. If the Christian citizens of this country will 
but boldly assert their rights of conscience in the 
exercise of their right of suffrage, we shall soon see 
the last of nominating conventions that put bad 
men forward on the plea of " availability," or advo- 
cate measures that are essentially wrong because 
they happen to please the unthinking multitude for 

the hour; for bad men would no longer be availa- 
11 



1G2 The Christian Citizen. 



ble. If what our political teachers tell us is true, 
they should heartily indorse these views. For do 
they not tell us always, and in all ways, and with 
much fervor of patriotic eloquence, that the citizen 
is a " sovereign?" I only apply this wholesome 
doctrine — a doctrine taught, we are told, in the 
" Declaration of Independence." Let this " sover- 
eign citizen " stand forth, crowned and scepterecl, 
for the vindication and maintenance of his sover- 
eigntj 7 . This means, if it means any thing, that he 
must vote as his own judgment dictates, and his own 
conscience commands. 

Above and before all things, we need in our poli- 
tics not new parties, but clear-thinking, conscien- 
tious, God-fearing men in the old parties, who pre* 
fer defeated right to triumphant wrong. There are 
enough good men in both the great parties to regen- 
erate them both — if they will only dare to do what 
they'conscientiously believe to be right. In passing 
from this point, I wish to say, with emphasis, A 
Christian citizen cannot be a conscious and will- 
ing party to placing corrupt men in office. 

2. Let us consider the Christian citizen as a candi- 
date for office j and a holder of office. 

(1) There is no office, from the humblest to the 
loftiest, that would not be better filled by a Chris- 
tian citizen than by a corrupt citizen. "No man is 
farther than I am from advising or desiring that 
the Churches, as such, should nominate candidates, 
and seek, through the machinery of ecclesiastical 
organization, to carry elections. A Methodist can- 
didate, put forward by a Methodist Conference; a 



The Christian Citizen. 



103 



Baptist, put forward by the Convention; a Presby- 
terian, by Synod or Assembly, I hope never to see. 
And I do not expect ever to behold a sight so un- 
seemly. Nevertheless, I do not hesitate to say, I 
believe that Christian men, as a class, are fitter to 
hold office than are wicked men, as a class. If this 
be treason of any sort, there is no help for it. 

I understand the sneers that nowadays are not 
uncommon about "Christian statesmen,'' and what 
use those who give currency to these sneers make 
of any instance of inconsistency that the public or 
private life of some professor of religion reveals; I 
am not forgetful that it is possible that before now 
some have " stolen the livery of heaven to serve the 
devil in." But as no man rejects good gold because 
there are occasional counterfeits, so no man of sense 
will lay to the charge of Christianity the faults of 
certain pretenders w T ho have professed it for the 
sake of the favors of its true disciples. 

The alternative is not, as some seem to suppose, 
putting a weak and ignorant Christian in office, or 
a strong and capable sinner. I know that goodness 
alone is not a qualification for office. But surely 
there is no reason, appreciable by common sense, 
for believing that the law-making and governing 
talent of the country is confined to outbreaking 
sinners. I cannot see that the habit of liquor- 
drinking gives greater clearness of judgment in de- 
vising or interpreting laws, or that it imparts firm- 
ness of grasp to any of the executive departments 
of government. I do not see that the habit of pro- 
fane swearing, that any other form of vice, adds 



164 



The Christian Citizen. 



any thing to a citizen's qualification for office. 
There is as little reason for believing that being 
truly religious in anywise disqualifies a man for the 
duties and responsibilities of office-holding. Speak- 
ing in a general way, I am justified by all our his- 
tory in saying, It is better to have Christian men in 
office; for there is equal probability of their capacity, 
and greater probability of their integrity. 

These considerations lead me to say that very 
often the Christian citizen fails of his duty by de- 
clining to be a candidate. He says, very sincerely, 
"I do not want the office." True enough; but it 
may be his duty to hold it. It is tolerably well 
understood among us that desire for office is no 
proof of qualifications for its duties. For the most 
part, the men who do not want office are the men 
that the country needs in office. Very great eager- 
ness rather argues unfitness for the responsibilities 
of power. 

As things are now — as campaigns are now con- 
ducted — I can w T ell understand how a Christian citi- 
zen may shrink with horror and disgust from going 
down into the arena. Nevertheless, it is the duty 
of Christian citizens to make sacrifices for the sake 
of good government. Frequently we condemn a 
town or city for having weak or bad men in author- 
ity, when we ought rather to condemn certain Chris- 
tian men who refused to do their duty when they 
were called for. But supposing that our Christian 
citizen has entered upon the race, I wish to mention 
some things that he will not do, and that he cannot 
do, without breaking with Christ the Lord. 



The Christian Citizen. 



165 



He will not lie upon his opponent. He will not 
seek victory by slander. He will not " fight the 
devil with fire " — as the phrase is — answering lies 
with lies. He prefers defeat. But if he should 
sink so low, true Christian citizens should vote 
against him. Campaigns of calumny should cease. 

The Christian candidate who is true to his pro- 
fession will employ neither intimidation nor bribes. 
He will neither force nor buy his way to power. 
He will not sell his prospective official influence to 
unfit men for the sake of their influence. He will 
not use that hire and price of fools — whisky-treats. 
But if he should do these ignoble things, let honor- 
able men vote him down. He is " weighed in the 
balances, and found wanting." But some man may 
say: " That sort of thing will do to talk, but it 
won't work; elections cannot be carried on that 
line." I answer: You are mistaken; they can be, 
and they will be, carried on this high line that day 
the Christian men of this country wake up to a 
right sense of their high calling as citizens. The 
Christian men of Atlanta, of Georgia, of the United 
States, can carry any election — and without corrup- 
tion — they determine to carry. These men do not 
wish to form a political party, but some day they 
will say to the parties with which they vote: " See 
here: we will have no more calumnies, no more 
lies, no more corruption-fund, no more drunkard- 
making." 

If I am still told that elections can only be carried 
by vile methods, I answer, Then dig the grave of 
free institutions. 



166 



The Christian Citizen. 



(2) The Christian citizen who is placed in office will 
endeavor to discharge his duties as God's represent- 
ative in that office. It will be his prayer and study 
to so "bear the sword" that it will be a "terror" 
only to "evil-doers/ 7 and always "a praise" "to 
them that do well." O how we need, in the official 
mind of these times, that grand conception of office 
that appears in the Psalms of David! The true ruler 
w^as as a " shepherd " to his people. How our high 
rulers need to know that their offices were not 
created for them, or for their party friends, but for 
the benefit of all the people! it is a shameful and 
shocking thing to see a man in high office conduct 
its affairs as if he were the enemy of those who did 
not help to elect him, rather than the servant of the 
whole people! How infinitely this partisan system 
of government falls below the maxim of our Lord: 
" Whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be 
servant of all!" No man can do his whole duty to 
the people w r ho conducts government — whether 
national, State, or municipal — on the "spoils" sys- 
tem. For banditti and pirates it is the only possi- 
ble system; for statesmen, patriots, and rulers, it is 
the wwst system possible. 

If the Christian citizen in office has the manage- 
ment of the people's money, he will discharge his 
trust faithfully. He will take care of the people's 
money more carefully than if it were his own. If 
he makes contracts for the State, he will do it hon- 
estly. So far as the State's money is concerned, he 
will be " content with his wages." The State's 
money will not " stick to his fingers." When pub- 



The Christian Citizen. 



167 



lie officers, without other legitimate income, grow 
rich on small salaries, we have more than hard co- 
nundrums to solve; there are crimes to unravel and 
punish. 

One other word here: The true " civil service re- 
form," of which we hear so much, and see so little, 
will be mightily helped forward when good men 
and women scorn, as they ought to scorn, public 
thieves. And when a thief of the public money is 
set to breaking rock in the chain-gang, or to hard 
labor in the penitentiary for his crimes, it will be a 
lesson that will nearly educate a generation. 

3. Let us now consider the Christian citizen as a 
tax-payer. 

Government cannot be carried on without money, 
and a great deal of money. Those who enjoy the 
protection of government should pay for it in some 
way. It may be through a tariff, an income-tax, a 
poll-tax, a general tax on all kinds of property. 
Now, a Christian citizen may seek, by all right 
means, to change existing tax-laws, but he cannot 
avoid the payment of his equitable share of the tax 
without compromising his character as an honest 
man, and shaming his profession of the Christian 
religion. Forever stands the answer of our Lord 
to certain Jews who would as gladly have escaped 
the Eoman tax as involved Jesus himself with the 
Roman authorities: " Render unto Caesar the things 
which are Caesar's." 

The gospel teaches justice and equity in our deal- 
ings with each other. The citizen who dodges the 
payment of his share of the taxes violates the spirit 



1G8 



The Christian Citizen. 



of Christianity. Such conduct, it cannot for one 
moment be doubted, is a sin in the sight of God. 
Let a single illustration show how the non-tax-pay- 
ing citizen wrongs his fellow-citizens. A certain 
amount of money, let us suppose, must be raised in 
a certain city. He who answers falsely as to his 
property, and appears on the tax-lists as worth only 
§10,000, when, in reality, he is worth $50,000, pays 
just four-fifths less than he ought to pay, and by so 
much robs his fellow-citizens, who have to make up 
the difference by paying a higher rate than they 
ought to pay. I can think of but one case in which 
this statement would not hold good: if all tax-pay- 
ers should make false returns, they would be equally 
guilty of an effort to defraud the Government at the 
supposed expense of each other, and all alike unsuc- 
cessful, in that the higher rate necessary would de- 
feat them all. But such a case never happens, and 
it comes to pass that no man willfully makes false 
returns without seeking to rob the State and act- 
ually robbing his neighbors; 

Officials, who have had much to do with these 
matters, tell me there is a great deal of sharp prac- 
tice against the State by property-owners, whereby, 
in one way and another, they manage to pay much 
less than they ought to pay. This is a sin against 
God and men; it unfits people for the kingdom of 
heaven. 

There are many loose notions in many minds on 
this whole subject — notions, let us hope in charity, 
that are held in ignorance, or want of attention to 
their absurdity and iniquity. Many think it not 



The Christian Citizen. 



169 



wrong to cheat the Government, unless they are 
found out. They hold by the old Spartan theory, 
that the wrong of stealing exists only in detection. 
If the custom-house officers, to mention an instance, 
can be evaded or bribed, and so money can be saved 
that ought to go to the Government, there are hun- 
dreds who chuckle over their knavish achievement 
as if it were so creditable to their shrewdness as to 
condone their immorality. Does any man among 
us, who is at all informed upon the subject, doubt 
whether there are multitudes in our own State (and 
it is fair to suppose we are not more guilty than 
others), who systematically and intentionally cheat 
the treasury of a part, at least, of what they ought 
to pay, every year? Does any man who is informed 
doubt whether the general Government is defrauded 
of millions, year by year, by those who pay less 
than they ought to pay? who not only clo a great 
wrong themselves, but actually tempt and aid reve- 
nue officers and the customs-collectors in appropri- 
ating vast sums of the people's money? 

Wherein is it less criminal to cheat the State than 
to cheat individuals? Nay, citizens cannot cheat 
the State without cheating individuals also, for, as 
everybody knows who thinks at all, those who pay 
honestly have to make up what is lacking through 
the deficits of those who pay dishonestly. My 
brethren, we do indeed want "ethical revivals" — 
revivals of good morals, revivals that quicken the 
consciences of men, not only as to tax-paying, but 
as to justice and righteousness in all our dealings 
with our fellow-men. 



170 



The Christian Citizen* 



4. Let us briefly consider the Christian citizen in 
his relation to the administration of law. 

(1) The Christian citizen should be a pattern of 
obedience to law. If it be only a law against " driv- 
ing faster than a walk" over a bridge, his conscience 
says, " Respect it — it is law!" No man can violate 
any right law with impunity. It may be, in itself, 
a very small thing, as the instance given, or a city 
ordinance forbidding the use of fire-works in certain 
places, or the trampling of grass in a city park; but 
it is law, and in nearly every such case it is founded 
on good sense and moral right. But even a frivo- 
lous and foolish law, that does not contravene rights 
of conscience, should be observed — because it is law. 
Get it changed if you wish, or can; but while it is 
law, obey it. 

Take a more serious case — the carrying of con- 
cealed weapons. The law forbids it. If there were 
no other reasons against the practice — and there are 
many and strong reasons — and the law were never 
enforced, as it ought to be in every case, the law 
should be observed, and will be observed, by all who 
have right views and good consciences. The Chris- 
tian citizen will obey law as law, and for the sake 
of law. 

(2) If the Christian citizen have children, and do 
his duty to God and to man, he will not only obey 
law, but he will teach his children to do it. It is a 
rare thing that men are arraigned before the courts 
for the violation of law who have been faithfully 
taught obedience to law in childhood. It may be 
remarked at this place — a whole discourse would 



The Christian Citizen. 



171 



not suffice for its full statement — that in wise and 
scriptural parental government rests the hope of all 
true and lasting reforms. Children who have thor- 
oughly learned obedience to parents very rarely 
violate the laws of the State. Moreover, if domes- 
tic government be lacking in the bringing up of 
children, they can find afterward no substitute for 
its saving culture. We must learn obedience at 
home — it is but imperfectly learned in any other 
school. 

It cannot be doubted by any who have studied 
the genesis and progress of crime, that the disposi- 
tion to violate laws, the most sacred and important, 
is fostered and aggravated by the habit, formed 
perhaps in early childhood, of violating laws that 
were thought to be of small consequence. When a 
boy drives over a bridge in a rapid trot, when he 
sees the warning of the law, and also sees that he 
is not in danger of detection, or knows that the 
statute will not be enforced against him, he has 
done a thing that may indeed amuse him with its 
spice of adventure, but a thing that introduces into 
his heart and life an evil principle and spirit of 
disobedience that may some day bring him to the 
felon's cell, or to the gallows. 

But I cannot enlarge here. Meditate on these 
things, and secure your children against the penal- 
ties of violated law by inculcating the principle 
and practice of obedience to all law. And medi- 
tate also on the relations between such habits of 
obedience early formed and religion and salvation. 

(3) The Christian citizen should do all he can to 



172 



The Christian Citizen. 



develop and strengthen a right public opinion and 
sentiment on the subject, not only of obedience to 
law, but also of the enforcement of law. 

The relation of public opinion to the enforcement 
of law is not sufficiently understood. This relation 
is almost vital. Outside of military law, or some 
system equivalent to it, it is next to impossible to 
enforce a law that is not sustained by public senti- 
ment. In courts that come from the people, it is 
impossible to escape the contagion, or to resist alto- 
gether the pressure, of a pronounced public opinion. 
If the court were so constituted as to be entirely 
insulated from the currents of public sentiment — as, 
for instance, if the judge, jury, and solicitor, should 
be from abroad — strangers imported for a given oc- 
casion — it might, indeed, be easier to procure con- 
viction. (Even in the case supposed we should find 
the insulation imperfect.) But the educating power 
of a trial and conviction in a court so organized 
would be incomparably less than if the same case 
were conducted to conviction and punishment by a 
home-court. There was no true educative value in 
the trials conducted by such a despot as Jeffreys, 
who cared little or nothing for the opinions of com- 
munities where he held his court " organized to 
convict." His sentences only inspired terror for 
the time, and begot only hatred afterward. They 
fostered no sentiment of justice, no sense of obliga- 
tion to obey law and respect authority ; they did 
not " commend themselves to every man's conscience 
in the sight of God." His executions were barba- 
rous spectacles that only gratified the brute instincts 



The Christian Citizen. 



173 



that lurk in the feelings of the mob; they did not 
manifest the sacredness and majesty of law; there 
was in them no reminder of the awful holiness that 
awed the multitudes that waited before Sinai when 
Moses talked with God. 

! To set forth more clearly what I mean, let us 
suppose a trial in the city of Atlanta, in a case of 
murder. It is conducted, we will suppose, by a 
military court, such as we knew at the close of the 
war. The accused is convicted, and justly, as every- 
body knows. Suppose now the same case tried 
before your circuit judge ; that it is prosecuted by 
your own solicitor; that the jury is made up of 
citizens of Fulton County. It is too obvious to 
need an argument, that the impression made upon 
the community by such a trial is far greater for 
good, far greater as an educating influence, than in 
the trial conducted by the court from without. The 
one is a verdict, we may say, by the community, 
speaking through its own court; the other is a ver- 
dict by a court of w^hich little is known except its 
power. 

An illustration may be given upon a large scale. 
As an educating power, the Federal court that tries 
offenders against the revenue laws of the United 
States is not to be compared with our State courts, 
through which each community expresses its judg- 
ment and conscience. I do not attack, in the least, 
the United States Courts (I know how necessary 
they are, and I believe they have been conducted 
with fairness and ability) when I express the opin- 
ion that one conviction for illicit distilling* by a 



174 



The Christian Citizen. 



home-court would do more to educate any sfiven 
community in right views upon the subject than 
would a dozen convictions bv the United States 
court, made up of strangers, it may be, and sitting 
at points remote from the scene of the offenses. I 
know it may be said in answer, " Conviction can- 
not be had in a court whose juries are composed 
of the neighbors of the accused distillers/' Allow 
that this is true, it only proves and illustrates 
what I wish to bring to your attention — the rela- 
tion of a strong public opinion to the enforcement 
of law. 

Other illustrations may be given. Why is it 
easier to prosecute a common murderer to convic- 
tion than the man who has slain his enemv in a 

j 

duel? Public opinion makes the difference. It is 
said that only one duel has been fought in the State 
of Illinois. The survivor was hanged — there have 
been no more duels. Public opinion, had he gone 
unpunished, would have been educated the wrong 
way. 

We have laws against all forms of theft. Con- 
viction is easy — public opinion makes it so. We 
have laws against murder. Convictions that issue 
in capital punishment are rare, because public opin- 
ion hesitates in sight of the gallows. We have 
laws against the carrying of concealed weapons. 
They are, comparatively speaking, rarely enforced. 
Why ? Because public opinion, on this subject, 
is as yet only a feeble sentiment. We have laws 
against selling liquors to minors. They are rarely 
enforced. Public opinion is too crude and feeble to 



The Christian Citizen. 



175 



make conviction easy. We have laws against brib- 
ery at elections. They are rarely if ever enforced, 
because public 3pinion is below the standard of the 
law. 

Scores of illustrations might be given, but they 
are unnecessary. It has now come to be an accept- 
ed maxim, " You cannot enforce a law that is far in 
advance of public opinion." Must we then bring 
our laws down to the lower standard? Never. 
Rather let us, by all means possible, raise the stand- 
ard of public opinion. I was deeply impressed 
some years ago by the remark of one of the strong- 
est of our judges — a man who is not afraid to do 
his duty. Some one had written an article, setting 
forth in vigorous language the importance and duty 
of sustaining our courts by a sound and pronounced 
public sentiment. Said this distinguished judge, 
"You cannot tell how such expressions strengthen 
me. The courts do need the support of public 
opinion." 

May I remind you of a passage in the history of 
Atlanta, soon after the civil authority was reestab- 
lished? How much easier than it was ought to 
have been the task of the brave man who presided 
in your Superior Court in this county, when, in 
God's fear, he bore so grand and heroic a part in 
% the work of saving this city from the dominion of 
the mob ! Very great was the educating power of 
that court in your city. Its decisions helped to 
clear your moral atmosphere of suffocating clouds 
of vice. And as the sentiment of the better people 
of Atlanta rallied about that court and its cour- 



176 



The Christian Citizen. 



ageous judge, its power for good was multiplied a 
hundred-fold. 

There are many ways by which a right public 
sentiment may be fostered. I cannot even mention 
them all. Some of the more effective I may point 
out. Let good citizens do their duty as jurors 
when the time comes. When a court is shut up to 
tenth-rate men for jurors, it indicates a low senti- 
ment in the community as to the dignity and im- 
portance of the administration of law. 

How little most people esteem the dignity and 
importance of our grand -juries! What noble 
" charges " are often delivered to them by our 
learned judges! How often the grand inquest 
results in findings that are unworthy of the charge 
delivered by the courts! When our grand-jurors 
realize both the solemnity of their oaths, and the 
greatness both of their opportunity and their re- 
sponsibility, the power of our courts for good will 
be tenfold increased. (And the same principles 
should determine the verdict of the traverse-juries 
when they are determining the merits of any case 
that is brought before them.) And here let it be 
said, Citizens should cooperate with our grand- 
juries to purge the land of crime. The rightly- 
despised " sycophant" of the Roman courts was 
the base fellow who informed on his neighbors for 
pay, and who, in greed of gain, invented calumnies 
where crimes did not exist. But the citizen who 
gives to grand-juries information they need, not for 
rewards or revenge, but from love of righteousness, 
is not a sycophant, or professional informer. It is 



The Christian Citizen. 



177 



sometimes a high patriotic duty to give informa- 
tion. 

Let good citizens, by word and deed, show all due 
honor to magistrates and rulers, of high and low 
degree. It is not an accidental or merely arbitrary 
thing that the Scriptures forbid us to speak evil of 
magistrates and of the rulers of the people. This 
sort of evil-speaking is a common vice. It is un- 
speakably harmful. To speak contemptuously of 
our laws, of our courts, of our rulers, is to make a 
vicious and ignorant assault upon the very citadel 
of public and private morality. Let good citizens 
confirm and establish, by hearty approbation, the 
righteousness of all right decisions of the courts, 
and of our rulers. Where they must criticise — and 
it is the right, and sometimes the duty, of citizens 
to criticise — let them show their fitness for criticism 
by at least showing a becoming respect both for 
the law and its officers. 

The press can do much in fostering such opinions 
and sentiments as will strengthen the hands of our 
law-officers, and all our rulers, for their great and 
difficult work. Alas! that so many newspapers 
abuse their liberty — that they so often use their 
great influence to destroy among the people right 
sentiments as to law and authority. 

The pulpit has a high duty to perform to the 
people. It can, I think, do as much as the press 
can do — possibly more. It is not a Pauline concep- 
tion of its functions and ministry that would forbid 
it such discussions. 

The school-teacher has a grave duty here. In 
12 



178 



The Christian Citizen. 



the school-room should be taught the great lessons 
of law and order, of authority and obedience, of gov- 
ernment and submission. 

But, as intimated in another place, it is in the 
family that the greatest work may be done. If 
parents will teach their children the meaning of 
law and government, and the sacred duty of obedi- 
ence — above all, if they will add to wise precepts 
good examples, we shall, after awhile, have a public 
opinion that will enable our courts to perform to 
the full their divinely-bestowed and all-important 
powers and functions. ISTor would the life-giving 
influence of a pure public sentiment be confined to 
our courts of law. There is no officer of govern- 
ment, of any grade, who would not feel the ground 
firmer under him, and his heart stronger in him, 
for the faithful performance of every duty. 

So great and noble a problem w x as never given to 
any nation as to ours. We are now fifty million; 
presently we shall be one hundred million; some- 
time; it is not improbable, we shall be five hundred 
million. We need not fail because ancient republics 
have failed; they lacked the saving, inspiring, life- 
giving, and sanctifying influence of the Christian 
religion. Let us bear in mind, these millions of 
men are not simply human beings to be counted by 
census-takers; they are not simply subjects; they 
are citizens — free citizens — armed with that thun- 
derbolt of political power, the ballot. It is their 
problem: these free citizens will make or mar the 
fortunes of their country. In no country, in any age, 
was there ever so much to hope for, or ever so much 



The Christian Citizen. 



179 



to fear. If these citizens are wise and good, we shall 
have a country and a civilization never matched in 
human history. If they are foolish, if they are un- 
faithful, if they are corrupt, we shall work out a 
tragedy — the saddest the world ever saw. 

I am not dreaming of some Utopian scheme of a 
bettered world. I have not said more of the Chris- 
tian citizen than his country has a right to expect 
of him. Nay; I have said no more than some 
Christian citizens are, than all ought to be, than all 
might be. 

I have not been theorizing in this discourse; it is 
of things practical, and intensely practical, that I 
have spoken. It is of blessed realities that I hope 
to see in larger and ever larger measure. I rejoice 
to believe that Christian people are waking up to 
these things — that they begin to meditate more and 
more upon their responsibilities and duties as citi- 
zens. When they are fully awake, they will redeem 
their country from its political evils. 

Let us see: What has been advanced in this dis- 
course concerning the Christian citizen? That he 
should realize his personal responsibility as a citizen, 
and that to discharge it, he must be free; that he 
should vote in all elections, and that to vote as be- 
comes him, he should vote on his judgment and his 
conscience; that as a candidate, he will bear himself 
as an honorable and honest man; that as an office- 
bearer, he will be faithful to his trust, as one who 
must give an account to God; that as a tax-payer, 
he will neither defraud the Government nor rob his 
fellow-citizens; that as a member of the community, 



180 



The Christian Citizen. 



he will support, both by precept and example, the 
laws and government of his country. And is 
this too much to ask of a Christian citizen? Let 
every man answer in his own heart and upon his 
conscience. If the doctrines of this discourse do 
not commend themselves to your reason and your 
conscience, reject them as candidly as they are pro- 
posed to you; if they do so commend themselves, 
act upon them and live by them. 
• ]STo doubt there is much sin among our people, as 
there is much corruption in our politics. There are 
many great and sore evils in our political and social 
system that wise men dread and good men deplore. 
But there is no occasion or reason for despair. The 
controlling influences of our country are still Chris- 
tian. Christian principle still underlies the founda- 
tions of our social and civil structure, and Christian 
sentiment still leavens our laws and our institutions. 
But the Christian people of this country have not 
made themselves felt in the government of the 
country as they might and ought to have done. 
None are more interested in the Government; none 
pay more to support it; none are more competent 
to manage its affairs; none have greater claim upon 
the confidence of their fellow-citizens. 

When such things are said, there are not wanting 
a class of small demagogues who cry out, in feigned 
alarm, about the " Union of Church and State. " 
There is no danger whatever of such a union in 
this country and this age. Nobody seeks it; no- 
body desires it. The tendency of the times is all 
the other way. In what I have said to you, I have 



The Christian Citizen. 



181 



not come within a thousand leagues of advocating 
such a union. But I do plead for a union of relig- 
ious principle and political principle. I do plead 
that in using this world, whether in business or 
politics, we may not abuse it, and that we may use 
it religiously. I do plead that the Christian relig- 
ion is the foundation and soul of our civilization. 
I do plead that a Christian man, who would do his 
duty, ought and must carry his religion into his 
citizenship. I do plead that if religion should lead 
a man to give full weights in buying and selling; if 
it should lead him to be honest in his ordinary busi- 
ness dealings with his fellow-men, it should lead 
him to be honest in his dealings with Government. 
I do plead that a Christian citizen should vote, and 
seek office, and hold officej and pay tax, and support 
law, as a Christian. I do plead that the claim which 
Christ our Lord makes upon the citizen is above 
and beyond all other claims. I do plead that the 
citizen who is loyal to Christ his King will vote, 
and acquire office, and exercise power, and pay tax, 
and support law and government, as unto the Lord. 

If all should so live — if the majority should so 
live — we would usher in the millennium of civiliza- 
tion. 



GARFIELD'S MEMORY. 



THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE DEAD PRESI- 
DENT AS AN INCENTIVE TO THE YOUNG 
MEN OF THE NATION 

[BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF EMORY COLLEGE, ON THE SUNDAY 
AFTER OPENING-DAY, OCTOBER 5, 1881.] 



"He being dead yet speaketh." Hebrews xi. 4. 

AMAZsT must do his work while he lives; if he 
has lived well, his best influence comes after 
he is dead. This is one compensation the world 
has in the death of its best men — " their good lives 
after them." To this day Abel preaches the doc- 
trine of obedience and the gospel of faith. 

As we use language, it is proper to say that James 
A. Garfield, late President of the United States, is 
dead. But in every sense that is truest and most 
important, he lives; and "he being dead yet speak- 
eth." Before speaking of him to you, my pupils, 
and of some of the lessons taught by his life and 
death, there are some facts of great and general 
interest that deserve recall. 

First, the fact of the world's interest in this man. 
During the long period of his sufferings, the state- 
ment of his case, its symptoms, treatment, and pos- 
sible issue, morning after morning, interested more 
people than any other subject of private or public 
fl«6 



Garfield's Memory. 



183 



concern. Every newspaper in the world published 
the bulletins issued by his physicians. More has 
been printed, read, said, and thought than was ever 
written, read, said, or thought during the same 
period of time concerning any other ruler of any 
nation in any time. Napoleon did never, during 
any eleven weeks of his extraordinary career, com- 
mand so much of the world's attention. 

The possibility of the concentration of the world's 
interest upon one man is illustrative of the progress 
of the arts and inventions of our time. It was 
never possible before. When President Harrison 
died, it was six weeks before the fact was known in 
every county east of the Mississippi River. Steam 
and electricity bring all nations nearer to each other 
than imagination conceived to be possible a century 
ago. The news from the illustrious sufferer's cham- 
ber outran the sun in his course through the heav- 
ens. In every city and large town in the civilized 
world, tidings from President Garfield's sick-bed 
were read and discussed before breakfast. 

Such facts are worthy of consideration by thought- 
ful people. ~We talk of the wonders of former 
times, but these are the wonderful times. We 
should thank Gocl that we live in such an age. But 
we should speak of these things with humility; 
there is every reason to believe that another gen- 
eration will so far outstrip us that we will be es- 
teemed slow in our movements and meager in our 
plans. Yet it is a fearful thing to live in such an 
age. Alas that we do not realize our responsibili- 
ties! that we know not the lamrua^e of God's 



184 



i 

Garfield's Memory. 



providence in our own history! that we read so im- 
perfectly the signs of these times! 

But of more importance than the swift transmis- 
sion of intelligence is the deep and heart-felt inter- 
est the President's case excited in all civilized and 
Christian countries. The remark need not be qual- 
ified by such adjectives, for messages of respectful 
condolence came from Mohammedan countries, and 
also from heathen China and Japan. It is idle to 
sneer and say this w^as the language of mere diplo- 
macy. It was the language of human nature ex- 
pressing its sympathy for a sufferer and its interest 
in a brother-man, exalted by the circumstances of 
his position and the nobleness of his character into 
an object of universal interest. 

While he lingered in suffering, and the continu- 
ance of his life inspired a hope of his recovery, de- 
vout souls were praying for him in almost every 
nation. In our own country I do not believe there 
was one Christian man, woman, or child who did 
not pray the good God to spare his life. In En- 
gland, and on the continent of Europe, in all lan- 
guages, Christian people joined in our supplications. 
Protestants and Romanists prayed for him; so did 
Mohammedans and Jews. And thousands who had 
no personal faith said "Amen" to the universal 
prayer. 

Was there ever so impressive a ceremonial as the 
funeral of our martyred President? Would it be 
exaggeration to say that fifty thousand bells were 
tolling the day they buried him? And many bells 
were tolling beyond the sea at the hour fifty mill- 



Garfield's Memory. 



185 



ions of people in our own land paused in their toils 
to lay him to his rest. The Queen of England sent 
floral tributes for his bier, and in her court were 
worn the badges of mourning. These facts will be 
remembered among the marvelous things of his- 
tory. They illustrate in reality what we teach in 
theory — the brotherhood of the human race. 

In our own country, millions of prayers were 
offered that God would spare to the nation the life 
of the man whom every decent man respected and 
every true man was learning to love. These prayers 
were more remarkable for their intense earnestness 
than even for their number. 

In the calm review of these months of anxious 
supplication, I am constrained to believe that for the 
most part our prayers were sadly, fatally defective 
in one essential respect — confession. There is a 
sense in which the blood of this man is upon us all. 
If we do not repent, it will be upon our children 
also. It is as cruel as it is false to charge his death 
upon any party, or upon any section of any party, 
so far as purpose, or plan, or approval is concerned. 
But this I do believe: the shot of the altogether 
accountable madman who struck him down was but 
the final expression of the rancorous hates that have 
disgraced and dishonored our politics for at least 
three decades of bitter years. 

Only consider, during the life-time of one gener- 
ation the two leading sections of this country have 
been arrayed against each other as if they were nat- 
ural enemies. It had almost come to pass that a 
Northern man was suspected as untru^ to his sec- 



186 



Garfield's Memory. 



tion if he did not denounce "the South;" that a 
Southern man's loyalty to his own people was ques- 
tioned if he did not denounce "the North." We 
had nearly eliminated all geographical significance 
from the phrases " the North" and "the South." 
Where national issues have entered into our politics, 
Democrats have cursed Republicans, and Repub- 
licans have cursed Democrats. There is perhaps 
nothing in the history of any people that contains 
so much unmitigated hate and prejudice as the lit- 
erature of American politics for a generation past. 
What I say needs no elaborate proof. All political 
and many religious papers have burned it into our 
eyes; nearly every political speech has poured it 
into our ears. Language suffered barbarous tortures 
that men might satisfy their passion for abuse and 
denunciation. Worse than all this, the language 
of abuse was heard in many pulpits, and bitter 
speech entered into the language of social inter- 
course. It has been heard wherever men exchanged 
their notions, or gave vent to their prejudices. It 
had become a national vice from which no section, no 
party, no classes were free. But I will not dwell upon 
the revolting theme — you understand it too well. 

Is there one man or woman in the United States, 
of sufficient intelligence to take interest in public 
affairs and to discuss them, who has not during the 
last twenty years used language concerning political 
opponents that pure truth did not justify — language 
that had its inspiration more or less in sinful preju- 
dices and hatreds that violated and shamed the first 
principles of the gospel of the Son of God? If there 



Garfield's Memory. 



187 



is one such man or woman, it would be worth a 
pilgrimage to look upon so fair and lovely a soul. 
Would that I knew such a one! 

One thing is certain: it is only during the last 
three months that there has been an appreciable 
subsidence of this fierce fever of party passion and 
hate. Alas that there are alarming symptoms of 
its return to the wasted body of our country ! But 
for all this ocean-wide and ocean-deep sin of hatred 
and prejudice there has been most inadequate con- 
fession. Clamorous in our prayers we have been. 
But if men's feelings are to be judged by their 
speech, there have been few to say for themselves, 
as expressing a personal sense of guilt: "Deliver me 
from blood-guiltiness, God — against thee, and thee 
only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight." 
It may well be that our lack of confession and peni- 
tence explain the final denial of the prayers of a 
whole nation upon its knees. For certain it is, the 
assassin's sin is, by so much as we have added to the 
bitterness and hatred of our politics, our sin. This 
day, I charge it upon you, my hearers, that you 
have been guilty in that you have indulged bitter 
hatred and prejudices. This day, I confess with 
3hame before God that I have been guilty with you. 

But abusive language has not been the worst 
characteristic of our politics during all these years; 
Vying speech has been more than bitter speech. We 
have practiced, as a people, the doctrine that any 
thing is to be employed that will help our party to 
win. As, for example, the unscrupulous slander of 
candidates for public office. Thus, to give recent 



188 



Garfield's Memory. 



instances, Democrats, who knew it to be a forgery, 
published a letter that Mr. Garfield never wrote; 
Republicans, who knew what they said to be false, 
accused General Hancock of gross and habitual 
drunkenness. 

Along with bitter and lying speech, both parties 
have used corrupt and fraudulent methods. Both 
parties have bribed and cheated, bought and sold. 
Neither has been free in its political methods from 
violence and cheating. Ditring a visit to Jfew York 
last spring, I read in the papers full reports of a 
dinner given at Delmonico's. At that dinner it was 
openly boasted, by a man now threatened with prose- 
cution for defrauding the government (and the boast 
was applauded to the echo), that a certain State was 
carried in the election for President by " putting the 
money where it would do the most good." And 
Democratic managers used money in the same way 
— when they could get it. 

We may be sure of it, the assassin's shot is the 
final expression of the bitterness and prejudice of 
our politics and of the greed for office that amounts 
almost to a national mania. Let us remember, it is 
as murderous to stab a reputation as a body; it is as 
devilish to destroy a man's fame by slander as it is 
to take his life by shot, or steel, or poison. 

It should be remembered in this connection that 
what is aptly called "the spoils system" — a phrase 
suggestive of barbarism — of administering the affairs 
of the government is, of all things, the inspiration 
of the bitterness and the falseness of our political 
campaigns. For it holds out to perhaps a million 



Garfield's Memory. 



189 



of men the hope of some office in the gift of the 
government. 

I ask you, Were not the prayers of our people 
lacking in confession? 

Although our prayers lacked both confession and 
adequate penitence, it may be asked, Were they not 
answered? 

The infidel sneers, and some weak disciples feel a 
chill of doubt. Their syllogism runs thus: 

There were never so many prayers offered by so 
many people for any one thing; 

President Garfield died; 

Therefore, God does not hear prayer. 

A most foolish sort of argument this. It would 
be as good logic and as sound sense to say: Millions 
of men have a certain notion upon a subject; God 
does not think of it as they do; therefore, God is 
not wise. 

That is not prayer in any sense, that God has 
ever promised to answer prayer that leaves out sub- 
mission to his will, 

"If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; 
nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done," is 
the formula that infolds the true significance, and 
expresses the real essence and range of prayer. 

But the prayers of God's people were answered 
in the case of the late President: 1. In him and in 
his family. Great grace was given to them. They 
were sustained beyond the power of human forti- 
tude or sympathy. 2. In the prolongation of his 
life during nearly three months. This gave time 
for his successor to be personally prepared for the 



190 



Garfield's Memory. 



duty that has now come upon him, as he could not 
have been prepared had President Garfield died 
soon after he was shot down. 3. During these 
months the country had time to prepare itself for a 
change of administration. The prolongation of 
Mr. Garfield's life saved us from the strain and 
wrench of a sudden change of government. 4. But 
the most conspicuous and important blessing that 
has come to us during this long period of suffering 
has been in the hearts of the people themselves. It 
has brought them together as they had not been 
brought together in fifty years. It is easy to say 
things will now go on in the old way; sectionalism 
and party bitterness will again assert themselves. 
If it be so — which God in mercy forbid! — it is mat- 
ter for speechless gratitude that for nearly three 
months there was rest from the torments of these 
evil spirits. I, for one, believe that there is more 
genuine brotherhood and true national sentiment 
in the masses of the American people to-day than 
there has been in the last half century. A fierce 
harangue would not now by many audiences be list- 
ened to with patience; a bitter editorial would not, 
by right-minded people, be read at all As it seems 
to me, James A. Garfield has done, in the provi- 
dence of God on his sick-bed, more to heal the 
bleeding wounds of his country than all others 
have done since the horrid war began. It was worth 
dying for to have done such a work. 

I have said the prayers of the people were an- 
swered. Consider this: that which was uppermost 
in the people's thoughts was not Mr. Garfield — al- 



Garfield's Memory. 



191 



though they honored and loved him, and forgot his 
politics — but their, country. They believed that he 
intended to be the President of the whole nation; 
that his administration would tend to restore the 
lost brotherhood of our people. Hence they prayed 
God to spare him to the country, that this blessing 
he might bring to us. This he did, in large meas- 
ure, on his sick-bed; this he does in his grave at 
Cleveland, as he could not have done it in full health 
and power in the White House. Moreover, this 
felicity is his: what he has done in the restoration 
of a true national spirit is done for all time. If we 
will be so foolish and wicked, we may forget the 
lessons, but his work is done. No blunders can mar 
it. Happy are the dead who, while living, put in 
motion a good impulse, or gave the world a saving 
truth. Of a truth, such a man, " being dead, yet 
speaketh." 

But upon this first Sunday of the new college- 
year, with nearly a hundred new faces before me, I 
must speak of other aspects of this man's career. 

1. It was not and is not possible in any country 
in the world but ours. Young men, I have un- 
speakable contempt for that class of persons who, 
affecting foreign airs, or indulging a vain conceit, 
sneer at the institutions of their country. A coun- 
try .is worth loving and dying for in which such a 
career as Garfield's is possible. 

2. Consider what inspiration there is in his ex- 
ample and character to young men, working and 
battling without money or powerful friends. Let 
us recall some of the points in his life. A widow's 



192 



Garfield's Memory. 



son in poverty helping his mother; a laborer on a 
small farm; walking the tow-paths of a canal for 
wages many here would scorn — at last starting on 
foot to college with ten dollars in his pocket, work- 
ing, waiting, graduating with the honors of his class 
at the age of twenty-seven, an age at which many 
count it a shame to be at school. Take heart, you 
brave-hearted sons of poverty ! Many of you are 
here, as many like you have been here before you, 
and have never been dishonored for their poverty. 

3. Let me inquire, What was there in him that 
called forth, during his suffering, such profound and 
universal sympathies? His office had something to 
do with it; not its elevation simply, but the fact 
that he was our President. 

4. Much more his personal character. There was 
in him that subtle something we call sentiment that 
takes hold of honest people's hearts. Large-brained 
he was, but he was not all brain ; he had a big warm 
heart in him. He was capable of generous emo- 
tions, and the people found this out. Men forgot 
the splendid pageantry of his inauguration when 
they saw him with his great honors fresh upon him 
turn to kiss his proud old mother, of whom he was 
not ashamed in the Capitol, and to kiss his true wife 
whom he had loved so well. Those meager souls 
that cannot conceive of an honest act or of a gen- 
erous impulse sneer at such manifestations. I have 
seen a few w T ho could see nothing beautiful in this 
scene. Mean souls! Such a man would estimate 
the value of his wife by balancing her work with 
her board. 



Garfield's Memory. 



193 



5. People believed that Mr. Garfield feared God, 
and that he was a Christian. They had glimpses 
now and then of a pure home-life, where this man 
and his wife and children worshiped God. You 
cannot exaggerate this fact in estimating the popu- 
lar interest in him. Blackguards pooh-pooh such 
things. So does the devil. 

6. So far as the President was concerned, the real 
meaning of the popular interest in him is this: he 
was in himself a large expression of the true Amer- 
ican idea of this government. That idea embraces 
several facts and principles, of which I mention 
some of the corner-stones: 

(1) The perpetual union of these States. That 
idea was illustrated at Chattanooga the other day, 
when Confederate and Federal veterans joined to- 
gether in raising our country's starry flag over the 
scene of their festival and close by the field of 
Chickamauga. it was a fair sight to see! 

(2) An unsectional administration of the govern- 
ment. Mr. Garfield had developed immensely in 
this larger, truer patriotism within the last year. 

(3) A fair chance and equal justice for all men of 
every race. He represented these ideas and senti- 
ments that, despite our quarrels and wars, are at 
last deep down in the hearts of the people. No 
wonder the people without respect to parties trusted 
that it had been given to him "to restore Israel.*' 

This history, this life and death, should emphasize 
and accent for us some duties and principles of su- 
preme importance. 

1. Let us have done with abuse, and lying, and 



194 



Garfield's Memory. 



fraud, and violence, in our politics. It would dis* 
grace heathenism. But one says, "It is no use — 
they will keep on." Who are "they?" You and 
I are of this "they." You and I can see to it that 
our politics is not "set on lire of hell." Do not 
denounce without cause, tell no lies, do not defraud, 
commit no violence, vote for no hitter man for any 
place. 

2. We should cultivate a true spirit of national 
brotherhood. To say and do things simply to irri^ 
tate or injure an opponent is mean, and unworthy 
a civilized, to say nothing of a Christian, man. To 
hand down to our children the bitterness of a quar- 
rel, for which they are in nowise responsible, is 
treason to the country — as a sin against man and 
God. 

3. We owe a duty to President Arthur. His pa? 
sition is difficult, his burden heavy; his task delicate 
and complicated. We owe him respect, patience, a 
fair trial, honest support, and our fervent prayers, 
that he may have divine grace and help for the du- 
ties of his great office. 

We cannot afford to return to the old bitter and 
savage way; we cannot forget either our own inter- 
est in a good government or the world's stake in 
this best and greatest of all Republics that ever 
flourished or fell. 



THE MIND THAT WAS IN CHRIST. 

[OXFORD, JANUARY 1, 1882,] 



" Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Phi- 
lippians ii. 5. 

THE text speaks of Christ as he lived among 
men in his sinless humanity, the type and pat- 
tern of all goodness possible to our redeemed race. 
"Mind" here is not intellect, it is not the affections. 
It means essential character, that which makes a 
man what he is rather than some other kind of man. 
When we say of a man " his spirit is good," or "it 
is bad," we use the word spirit in nearly the sense 
of the word "mind" in the text. St. Paul wishes 
that his Philippian converts may be Christ-like in 
disposition, in character, in life; that they may have 
in them that which impelled Christ to choose al- 
ways as he did, right. 

In the Epistle to the Romans he tells us, " If any 
man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." 
How important and comprehensive this statement! 
How exclusive also ! But we have no logic-forms 
of definition to tell us just what a Christian is; no 
apothecary's balance, nor yard-stick, nor other me- 
chanical tests or measures. 

What is a Christian? How easy to answer if 
being a Christian depended on any certain thing to 

(195) * 



196 



The Mind that was in Christ. 



be done. If one could say, A is a Christian, he has 
been "baptized," he has been "confirmed," he has 
"received absolution," we could separate Christians 
from sinners just as Jacob distinguished his cattle 
from Laban's — by colors, marks, and such things. 
But if religion is a divine life in the soul, manifest- 
ing itself in the character and life, you can no more 
answer the question, ""Who is a Christian?"" by 
baptism-certificates than you can introduce the new 
life by baptism itself. After all, St. Paul's simple 
words contain the whole truth. A man may have 
been baptized, he may have had all possible eccle- 
siastical rites performed upon him, he may have 
done all things put down in the ritual, but to be a 
Christian he must have in him Christ's mind. 

Let us study the apostle's statement. What do 
we mean by "the mind that was in Christ?" To 
give a perfect analysis of the truth that is in these 
words would be like formulating a perfect cosmos. 
I speak to-day only of some of the more obvious 
points, knowing sorrowfully enough that I shall 
speak of them inadequately. 

Let us first contemplate the moral side of His 
life. 

His conscience was perfect. It responded always 
and promptly and fully to every claim of truth, to 
every call of duty. It resisted evil instantly upon 
its presentation. Its action was as instantaneous 
and invariable as the action of an instinct. We 
will understand this when we remember that Jesus 
always sought the right of things — this and nothing 
else. He said of himself with perfect sincerity and 



The Mind that was in Christ. 



197 



With perfect modesty, "I do always the will of my 
Father." He said, in the Sermon on the Mount, in 
the simplest possible form of words, but expressive 
of one of the profoundest laws of spiritual life, "If 
the eye be single, the whole body shall be full of 
light." He had "the single eye" always. 

We cannot think of Jesus as doing a right thing 
from sentiment, or policy, or fear. It was a matter 
of principle, of law, deep, constant, pervading his 
whole nature, to which every thing in this world 
had to bend. 

Reading the story of his life from its beginning 
to its end, from his childhood in Nazareth to the 
moment of his ascension from Bethany, what im- 
pression of him is deepest? Is it his wisdom, his 
power, his lowliness, his benevolence ? We know 
that we have never seen these attributes and qualities 
so full and perfect in any other life that ever was 
lived. But this is not our deepest and most lasting 
impression of him. It is his purity that impresses 
us most. We understand what Peter felt and 
meant when he said, "Depart from me, for I am a 
sinful man, Lord." 

Here let me say, considering who are listening 
to me, that nothing is worth so much to a young 
man as an abiding sense of right and its supreme 
claim on human life. When we find a youth in 
the temple saying, "I must be about my Father's 
business," we expect him to have the Father's 
blessing, and to enter at last the "Father's house" 
in heaven. 

Let us now consider the sympathies of Jesus. 



198 



The Mind that was in Christ. 



"What did he feel with? What struck the key of 
his heart? That which was good, and that only. 
What was evil might be splendid, but it did not 
touch a chord in his soul. An easy illustration may 
help us here. Suppose any three or four of your 
acquaintances visit together a great city, as New 
York. It has numberless and varied attractions. 
There is something for each eye, and ear, and sense. 
Here are the highest and the lowest, the purest and 
the vilest. One of your acquaintances will, you 
are sure, go to hear the great preachers; another 
will go to the art-galleries and libraries; another 
will go to the stock exchange ; another will go to 
the varieties theaters; another to nameless places. 
What determines their choice? That with which 
they are most in sympathy will attract and hold 
them. If Jesus were to go to New York, what 
would excite interest in him? Only the good, ex- 
cept as the evil would move his compassion that he 
might overcome the evil with his good. You can- 
not think of him as choosing a bad place, or a bad 
company, on the ground of sympathy with it. 

His life and his words make it certain that he 
was in sympathy with whatever is good, and with 
nothing else. 

We must not make the word "good" here too 
narrow. It covers all that is worthy in man. J esus 
was in sympathy with courage, fortitude — all pure 
manliness. His life is not a mere aesthetic perfec- 
tion — soft, delicate. He borrowed figures, in illus- 
trating his doctrine, from the working and battling 
world. His figures are agonistic and militant. 



Tite Mind *hat W as In ChrIs*, 



199 



Many of his words thrill us lik& a trumpet sound- 
ing the charge. 

It must never be forgotten that the goodness of 
Jesus manifested itself in good works; And good- 
ness that does not do good is a sham; There is a 
good deal of dreamy dilettante piety in the world 
that meditates, and ruminates, and feels titiiitterable 
things, as is supposed; It affects raptures and im- 
agines that it worships. But it does nothing but 
enjoy itself, saying, "I am very gdod.'* Christ's 
goodness was an active quality; it had in it the di- 
vine energy that creates; There is no goodness 
without usefulness. St. Luke giVeS his biography 
and his character in a sentence i "lie Went about 
doing good." For this he lived. To do good was 
his meat and drink. He Said of himself, "The Son 
of man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister." 

He cared for men, in all their interests. He 
taught truth to the ignorant, that it might enlighten 
and make them free. He comforted the sorrowful 
hearts of mourners; he pointed out to all the bless- 
edness of purity. This is not all; Jesus cared for 
men's bodies. The Church has never fully under- 
stood the significance of the fact that most of 
his miracles were wrought upon the human body. 
Thousands of sick people he healed. He put 
strength in lame feet and palsied arms. He made 
straight poor bent bodies, drawn together by pain. 
He made the flesh of lepers like the flesh of healthy 
children. He gave sight to blind people, and opened 
the ears of the deaf. With what tenderness he 



200 



The Mind that was in Christ. 



made the hungry multitudes sit down upon the 
green grass while he fed them all. He speaks of 
acts of mercy to suffering bodies as among the 
things to be inquired into and rewarded at the last 
judgment. 

We are Methodists, and are sometimes over-proud 
of our Methodism, but here let me say, Methodism 
has never done its duty as to men's bodies. Meth- 
odists are behind many in ministering to the sick, 
the lame, the suffering. Roman Catholics lead us 
in such work so far that there is no comparison. 
The " sisters of charity" deserve the fame they have 
won all round the world. The Episcopalians are 
far in advance of us in such Christ-like work. Go 
into any city. There is an orphans'-home, there is 
a hospital, there is a retreat for the helpless old 
people. What Church is nearest to it — most inter- 
ested in it? It is rarely, very rarely, a Methodist 
Church. God be thanked! one Methodist, George 
I. Seney, of Brooklyn, is building a great hospital 
for all suffering and poor people of any nation or 
sect, or no sect whatever. 

We may consider briefly the intellectual life of 
Jesus. 

I do not speak of its power, or its compass, but 
its characteristics, in which the humblest of us may 
pray to be " like him." Consider the repose, the per- 
fect balance, the healthful and harmonious action 
of his intellectual powers. Among other such qual- 
ities we feel that his mind is without the heats that 
come of prejudice — that is always a form of selfish- 
ness. Only a good conscience and a good heart can 



The Mind that was in Christ. 



201 



give us such a mind. Genius, and learning, and 
will, all combined, cannot secure this result in the 
characteristics of mental action. It comes of a good 
conscience and a good heart, and can exist in no 
other connection. 

But Jesus was no recluse: he came "eating and 
drinking;' 3 we cannot study his character without 
considering his relations with men. 

In the first place, consider his perfect fairness. 
He looked at the man and the truth of things, not 
at the name, or dress, or title. He was as "full of 
light" in judging men as in stating principles, giv- 
ing to each what was due him. See how he bore 
himself with men. Their greatness, their lowliness, 
are nothing to him. He does not cringe in the pres- 
ence of hostile power; he does not assume an air 
of condescension when he talks with the most hum- 
ble. Recall his interviews with the rich young 
ruler, with Ificodemus, with Pilate, with Herod, 
with the Sanhedrim. Recall him in the house of 
humble Lazarus, as he taught the woman by Jacob's 
well, and in all his dealings with the poor. You 
will fix the thought I am trying to bring before you 
by looking at its opposite for an instant. Think 
of Jesus as deflecting one hair's-breadth from right 
lines in the presence of frowning power, that night 
before he died ! Or think of Jesus at the very height 
of his fame, when the multitudes sung hosannas to 
him, as blushing because one of his poor relations 
from Galilee claimed his notice! But you cannot 
think of Jesus in any such light. 

His sympathy with humanity was perfect. He 



202 



The Mind that was in Christ. 



understood every one. This was not divine knowl- 
edge merely; it was not the mere intuition of a 
perfect intellect; that which I now speak of w r as a 
power of reading people's hearts, which love gives, 
and nothing else does give. Xo genius, nor experi- 
ence, nor long study of human nature, can equal 
love for understanding people. Sobbing penitents, 
sorrowful and heart-broken people of every class, 
flocked to him, because they knew he understood 
them. You cannot picture him as unloving, insen- 
sible, impatient toward any of them; nor can you 
imagine him as blundering in the use of comforting 
or guiding speech; for he knew each heart, and 
wished to do it good. See him on the way to the 
house of Jairus, whose little girl had just died. 
'When the servants tell the distracted father that 
she is dead. Jesus instantly comforts him with this 
word: "Be not afraid, only believe. 7 ' The crowd 
thronged him, Presently a poor woman, broken 
and bent with disease and pain and poverty, timidly 
slipped behind him and touched the hem of his 
garment, thinking that somehow it might do her 
good. When Jesus turned to look at her, he said, 
••Daughter, be of good comfort." You expected 
him to say such a word as this. That word from 
his lips never yet surprised any student of his life. 

Let us now consider how Jesus bore himself in 
his dealings with sinners and their sins. 

For a good man, one of the hardest things in the 
world to do is to sustain just the right relation to 
sinners and their sins. One must not make the im- 
pression that it is of small consequence to be a sin- 



The Mind that was in Christ. 



203 



ner. Yet it will not do to repel them — to make 
them feel that our religion banishes them from our 
interests, that it separates them from our humanity. 
If our religion drives sinners away from us, if it 
digs a chasm between us> there is something wrong 
about it. 

How did Jesus do? First of all, he did not avoid 
the question by isolating himself from them. The 
idea that the best way to be religious is to seek the 
wilderness, or the monk's cell, did not originate 
either in the doctrine or example of Jesus. He was 
no recluse; this is certain. He began life in a car- 
penter's shop; his first miracle was wrought at a 
wedding; he was often a guest when there was a 
large company entertained; his ministry was in the 
midst of the people. His times of retirement, for 
secret prayer and uninterrupted communion with 
the Father, were sacred. Though there is no inti- 
mation that he had regular set times, it is plain that 
he did often retire for special spiritual exercises. 
But he did not live apart from nlen. He lived 
among them. And we may be sure that a religion 
that cannot survive the companionship of our fellow- 
beings in this working world is altogether too frail a 
thing to be trusted. It is not the religion of Christ. 
No man or woman who is devoid of a living and lov- 
ing interest in a fellow-sinner can be a Christian after 
the spirit and example of Jesus Christ. 

Let us see how Jesus bore himself in intercourse 
with sinners, or in conflict with them. A rich young 
ruler came to him one day, inquiring about the way 
of life. There was work for him to do; he had a di- 



204 The Mind that was in Christ. 



vine call to something other than the enjoyment of 
his wealth and the leisurely cultivation of an exclu- 
sive and selfish pietism. With what kind candor did 
Jesus show him the one way that was possible to 
him ! " Go and sell all that thou hast ; give it to the 
poor; come, follow me; thou shalt have treasure in 
heaven/' It is not as easy to be kindly candid with 
the rich and great, in giving disagreeable advice, as 
some who have not tried it may suppose. As a 
general rule, the higher a man's station the less 
likely is he to receive from Christian men the sort 
of treatment and doctrine his soul needs. 

On one occasion, Jesus dined with a rich Phari- 
see, Simon by name. Simon was satisfied with 
himself, and, therefore, critical in his judgment of 
other people. While they were at table, a poor, 
penitent woman, "who was a sinner," came into 
the room where they were, and timidly approached 
Jesus as he reclined at the table. She "brought an 
alabaster-box of ointment, and stood at his feet be- 
hind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with 
her tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her 
head, and kissed 'his feet, and anointed them with 
the ointment." The self-satisfied Simon could not 
endure such a woman for a moment. He was one 
of those who think that their own virtue is con- 
taminated if they are kind to the sort of sinners 
that society condemns. It is not unlikely that 
there was then at his table some rich old Pharisee 
that Simon knew to be a sharper in trade — a man 
who made hard bargains, oppressing the poor when 
he could make shekels by it, devouring widows' 



The Mind that was in Christ. 205 



houses on convenient occasion. But him, having 
succeeded in his villainy, the world tolerated! This 
woman, with her heart-breaking penitence — she was 
contamination itself. Her betrayer, it is not im- 
probable, had the entree to Simon's house. Such are 
the ways of self-satisfied Pharisees in all ages. 

Simon made up his mind about Jesus when he 
saw that he did not repel the woman and her wor- 
shipful caresses, but seemed rather to be touched 
by her grateful demonstrations. Ah! he won't do 
for a prophet. " This man, if he were a prophet, 
would have known who and what manner of woman 
this is that toucheth him; for she is a sinner." It 
was to him conclusive argument; he took it for 
granted that a good man, who knew what she had 
been (such people look more to what men have been 
than to what they are), would have sent her away 
with indignation. Poor blind Simon! How very 
good he thought himself to be! 

Now, see how Jesus dealt with this sinner — not 
a conscious hypocrite, only a self-satisfied, deluded 
Pharisee. Jesus spoke a parable to Simon, " answer- 
ing" his secret thoughts. You remember it — the 
parable of the two debtors — one owing five hun- 
dred pence, the other fifty. They were both for- 
given. "Tell me, therefore, which of them will 
love him most?" Simon answered, "I suppose 
that he to whom he forgave most." With what 
words Jesus applied the doctrine, showing Simon 
how unspeakably better than he was the penitent 
woman he despised! These words brought into 
Simon's soul an all-revealing light, that made 



206 



The Mind that was in Christ. 



ghastly death's-heads of all his boasted virtues. 
The hand of Jesus did not spare him. Yet there 
was no fierceness in the stroke, as is too common 
with us when we brace ourselves to the point of 
rebuking the great. The woman needed comfort 
and recognition, and Jesus gave both to her. How 
her soul sunk within her when she felt the hard, 
relentless eyes of Simon fixed upon her! How her 
soul lifted itself up at the sound of Jesus' voice! 
What he said of her, in her hearing, and said it so 
that she might hear, looking at her while he talked 
to Simon, and what he said to her, was like the 
wine of life. I must quote these words, just as 
Luke records them. They thrill us now with their 
music of divine compassion : 

"And he turned to the woman, and said unto Si- 
mon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine 
house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but 
she hath washed my feet with her tears, and wiped 
them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me 
no kiss; but this woman since the time I came in 
hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with 
oil thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath 
anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say 
unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven: 
for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, 
the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy 
sins are forgiven." 

What a divine union of dignity and tenderness 
in his attitude toward this woman ! 

We pause here a moment. Our better nature 
condemns Simon; we call him heartless and mean. 



The Mind that was in Christ, 



207 



But stay! Suppose that just such a woman, just 
as penitent as she was, for just such a life as hers 
had been, were this day to come among us? Would 
we look upon her with somewhat of Simon's feel- 
ing? Are we Christ-like enough to know how to 
receive such a sister, so penitent, and for such sins? 
Think on the answer before you give it. 

Let us see how Jesus bore himself toward a dif- 
ferent class of Pharisees. There were three classes 
of Pharisees. The best class was represented by 
Xicodemus, who seems to have been an honest 
searcher after the truth. These had much of the 
leaven of religious truth and principle, and were the 
best of the Church that then was. The third chap- 
ter of John shows us how patiently, candidly, and 
earnestly Jesus sought to lead such men into the 
kingdom of heaven. A second class was repre- 
sented by this self-satisfied, self-righteous, critical 
Simon, whom we have seen revealed to himself in 
Christ's commendation of the penitent woman. A 
third class was full of conscious hypocrisy. They 
were men of policy, diplomacy. They hated Jesus, 
because his pure life and searching preaching con- 
demned them. They were the men who dogged 
his steps with spies; who sent out their emissaries 
to entrap him in his words; who, on one occasion, 
at least, sought " vehemently to provoke him to 
speak of many things, that they might accuse him." 
They were the men who consummated the treason 
of Judas with their "thirty pieces of silver" — cool 
enough, in spite of their blood-thirsty wrath, to drive 
a hard bargain with the traitor. They were the 



208 



The Mind that was in Christ. 



men who "tithed anise and cummin," "neglected 
the weightier matters of the law," and despised 
righteousness except as the loud-mouthed profession 
of it might bring them gain or cover up their crimes. 
They were the men who prayed on the corners of 
the street, and sounded trumpets, that they might 
be seen of men; who, "for a pretense, made long 
prayers," and, as a business, "devoured widows' 
houses," as bad and unscrupulous villains as ever dis- 
honored the name of religion, or oppressed the poor. 

How does Jesus deal with such sinners? His 
words are terrible as the thunders that shook Sinai; 
they burn like the lightnings that struck Israel 
with awe. Read the " woes" denounced upon these 
hypocrites in the twenty-third chapter of Matthew, 
and in cognate passages. 

I read to you some of these terrible denunciations: 
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
crites ! for ye make clean the outside of the cup 
and the platter, but within they are full of extortion 
and excess. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites ! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, 
w T hich indeed appear .beautiful outward, but are 
within full of dead men's bones, and of all unclean- 
ness ! Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous 
unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and 
iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites ! because ye build the tombs of the proph- 
ets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, and 
say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we 
would not have been partakers with them in the 
blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses 



The Mind that was in Christ. 



209 



unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them 
which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the 
measure of your fathers." 

" Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can 
ye escape the damnation of hell?" 

But wonderful to us, as we know the temper of 
our own hearts, there is in these fearful, withering 
denunciations no trace of personal feeling, no per- 
sonal heats, no pulse of bitterness toward the men. 
We think of ' nothing, while we read, but of their 
monstrous sins, and of his holv abhorrence of all evil. 

It is in the close of this awful denunciation of the 
hypocrites that Jesus — thinking of Jerusalem, " city 
of solemnities" and the object of ten thousand di- 
vine favors, but whose streets had been reddened 
with so much holy blood— breaks out in a divine 
sob of pity: "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that 
killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent 
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy 
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chick- 
ens under her wings, and ye would not ! Behold, 
your house is left unto you desolate." 

There is a harder test — his bearing toward sin- 
ners who had wronged him. How he had honored, 
trusted, and loved Peter, yet warning him faithfully 
of his danger. Peter was with him when the dead 
daughter of Jairus was restored to life; he was with 
him f on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Moses 
and Elias came from heaven and talked with him 
" concerning his decease which he should accomplish 
at Jerusalem." He w T as with him in the garden. 
Yet Peter denied him with fierce oaths. t)o not 
14 



210 The Mind that was in Christ. 



say that Jesus, being divine, did not feel such a 
wrong. He was a man, and by so much as he was 
purer and better and manlier than any other man 
who ever lived, he felt the cruel desertion of his 
friend the more keenly. 

When Peter had denied his Lord three times, the 
cock crew. Jesus had forewarned him: "Before 
the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice." They 
were in the high-priest's house. St. Luke says, 
"And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter/' 
What a world of meaning was in that look, full of 
suffering, full of pity, the reproof veiled by the sor- 
row and bleeding love. 

That look was not the last of our Lord's dealings 
with the sorely sinning disciple. That morning he 
rose from the dead and showed himself first to 
Mary Magdalene, he said, "Go tell my disciples and 
— Peter." He emphasized this love-token to Peter 
that he might know how "freely Jesus could for- 
give." And at some time during the forty days Jesus 
appeared to Peter alone, as if he would make him 
sure of his perfect forgiveness. 

When we have reached the point in religious ex- 
perience that we really forgive friends who have cru- 
elly wronged us — blotting it all out from our book 
of bitter remembrance — we have somewhat of "the 
mind that was in Christ." 

I suppose a case that never occurred — that never 
could occur with Jesus. I speak reverently, and 
am only trying to help myself and you bring home 
to our hearts the doctrine of the text. Suppose, 
for a moment, that Jesus had, in any way, wronged 



The Mind that was in Christ. 211 



another. How promptly, how nobly, how com- 
pletely, he would have sought to make reparation! 
We do wrong one another. If we had more of the 
" mind that was in Christ " we would fly with con- 
fessions and reparations to our wronged brethren. 

In every case and everywhere we find Jesus bear- 
ing himself toward sinners in such a way as never 
to make the impression that sin was a small thing, 
or that he hated the persons, or that he could do 
any thing other than to seek their highest good. 

Putting all together, we have in the man Jesus a 
perfectly simple character. 

Hence, when he came unto his own they " received 
him not." They knew him not — they despised, 
they rejected, they slew him. 

He would not make money, nor lay up property, 
nor give himself to pleasure, nor flatter power, nor 
humor the multitude, nor seek office, nor accept a 
crown. They could make nothing out of him — this 
man who wanted nothing and who yet showed him- 
self capable of any achievement. 

He did impolitic and unpopular things. He went 
to dine with Zaccheus though they all murmured; 
he accepted the lavish gratitude of a despised wom- 
an; his most intimate Jerusalem friends were three 
poor and obscure people of Bethany. His life was 
transcendently pure, his doctrine the loftiest that 
had ever thrilled the human conscience. Yet he 
made " publicans and sinners" welcome, and moved 
to and fro in the midst of the people, as any other 
citizen might do. 

When the people cannot make a man out, they 



212 The Mind that was in Christ. 



always denounoe him. So they said of Jesus: He 
is a drunkard, a glutton, a fool; he is the friend of 
publicans and sinners; he hath a devil. 

It is all a mistake to suppose that the simplest 
characters are most readily understood. A perfectly 
simple and upright man is never understood at all 
by the majority of men. The average man under- 
stands a Talleyrand better than he does a Madame 
Roland; he understands Beaconsfield better than 
he does Gladstone. Men understand what they can 
take to pieces; that which resists their analysis baf- 
fles their intelligence. 

To illustrate: Suppose some great Senator in 
Washington City should rise in his place and make a 
speech simply in the interests of his country — cross- 
ing may be the dominant sentiment of his party — 
that can, at least, in no way have any relation to 
party schemes or interests. Perhaps we may wait 
long for such a speech, but it is a thing conceivable. 
What would the party press say? They would 
bristle with exclamations and interrogations. If 
they could find no possible motive except this, he 
thought it was right, they would reject it. That is 
too simple; they must find something complex — at 
least double. If they cannot, they for the most 
part denounce. 

The average man not only does not readily under- 
stand a perfectly simple character — a man who does 
this or that only because it is right, and does not 
inquire farther for a ground of action — but he is 
disposed to hate and stone it. For it baffles him. 
It is a unit, and defies analysis like an ultimate fact 



The Mind that was in Christ. 



213 



in nature. It reproves the mixed and selfish mo- 
tives of the average man, and angers him. It may 
be remarked, this impatience with simplicity of 
character is most intense when it undertakes analy- 
sis of a religious man. It flamed at a white heat in 
the Pharisees who compassed the death of Jesus. 

Let me ask, young men and brethren, is the 
"mind that was in Christ" in you? 

If so, God is the center of your universe; God is 
your Father; man is your brother; you subordinate 
self, and will crucify self if need be, 

How great is the blessedness and triumph of hav- 
ing the mind that was in Christ! In any case, if we 
ask our hearts, " What would he do in this matter?"' 
we can answer any question of right and wrong; 
we can solve any perplexity as to duty. This ques- 
tion, " What would Jesus do in this case?" is an 
electric light, searching the very abysses of the soul 
and of life. Our diplomacy hesitates and falters, 
and finally blunders; but the single eye, asking in 
his spirit for the truth, and the truth only, is full 
of light, and courage, and wisdom. 

But we must consider for a moment the sustain- 
ing, comforting, conquering power of him who has 
the mind that was in Christ. 

If we have his mind in us, we are equal to any 
trial, any fate. Does some crisis suddenly precipi- 
tate itself upon us? We will survive the shock. 
Is it only the weary monotony of daily drudgery? 
He drudged in Joseph's carpenter shop, and his 
spirit will start songs in our hearts over the lowliest 
tasks that life allots us. Is there some secret grief, 



214 



The Mind ^hat was in Christ. 



some burden we can never lay down, some hidden 
sorrow that must have no voice except to God, some 
inner pain that must neither sigh nor groan that we 
must carry in our hearts all life-long? If his mind 
be in us we can do it, patiently, uncomplainingly, 
cheerfully, victoriously. 

If his mind be in us prosperity will not make us 
vain, failure will not bring us into despair. There 
is no joy, there is no triumph like his who has the 
"mind that was in Christ." 

To him be glory and dominion forever. Amen. 



THE FAITH THAT SAVES. 



[OXFORD, JANUARY 15, 1882,] 



"As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the 
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.*' John i. 12. 

VERY often sincere people have said to me, "I 
can't believe: I do n't know how to believe." 
They are mistaken ; they can believe, and they know 
how to believe. What they can't do is some mys- 
terious something they suppose to be believing; as 
if faith were some sort of spiritual sleight-of-hand. 

I feel deeply moved to-day, young men, to speak 
to you of the faith in Christ that saves men. 

By saving men, I mean this one thing — saving 
them from sin, and, by that token, saving them 
from the wages of sin. I will earnestly try to avoid 
mere technicalities; I will try to find out and tell 
you what believing is, as our Lord Jesus teaches us. 

In the very nature of things, faith implies need, 
dependence. AVe cannot think of God as having 
faith; he needs nothing — no pardon; no help of any 
sort. If he could need, there could be none who 
could supply the need. There is no power, no wis- 
dom, no purity, no goodness beyond him. But any 
created being, that is also intelligent, is capable of 
faith ; for where there is subjection and dependence 
there can be, must be, faith. Adam in Eden had 
faith : Adam out of Eden could have faith. Angels 

f21o) 



216 



The Faith that Saves. 



have faith. Saints redeemed will have faith forever 
and forever. It is foolish to sing, " Where faith in 
full fruition dies." Faith will never die. It is bet- 
ter to say with St. Paul, " Now abideth these three, 
faith, hope, and charity.'' 

The principle and law of faith are not accidents 
of our present mortal and sinful condition. Faith 
is not only possible, but it is normal and inevitable 
wherever there is dependence. It is as certainly and 
as essentially a law of the spiritual as gravitation is 
of the physical universe. Intelligent beings can no 
more exist and fulfill the ends ot their existence 
without faith than the worlds can keep their orbits 
without gravitation. 

I remember that when I was a sophomore here, 
in 1857, I was greatly troubled with this question 
(sophomores are sometimes very absurd): "Why is 
faith, and not something else, made the condition 
of salvation?" Some well-meaning but most un- 
wise friend placed in my hands a book, or pam- 
phlet, on the " Philosophy of Faith." I forthwith 
devoured the treatise, and knew less than I did be- 
fore. It helped me somewhat when I found out 
that neither Jesus nor his disciples used the word 
" condition " — that it was one of the words used by 
philosophers and theologians. The fact is, the word 
condition sometimes misleads us when used in con- 
nection with faith and the blessings faith brings to 
us. Among the conditions of the surrender of an 
army may be several particulars, as that all govern- 
ment property be turned over to the conqueror, that 
the men agree to fight no more unless exchanged, 



The Faith that Saves. 217 



that officers retain their side-arms, and many other 
such matters, any one of which, or all of which, 
might have been different. Faith is not a condition 
of salvation in any such sense; the only reason we 
may use the word condition at all in this connection 
is simply this— there can be no salvation without it. 
Not simply because faith has been fixed upon as the 
condition, but because it must needs have been the 
condition. Nothing else can be. Breathing is a 
condition of continued animal life in the same sense 
that faith is the condition of spiritual life. Consti- 
tuted as we are, breathing is a vital necessity; con- 
stituted as we are, faith is as truly a necessity to all 
spiritual life. It is law — not arbitrary, but essen- 
tial — a law growing out of the very nature of God, 
the very constitution of man, and the relation be- 
tween them. In the very nature of things, no mere 
form or ceremony could have been made a condition 
of salvation. Nothing that can be done without 
faith, or that is done without faith, is of any utility 
in bringing salvation into the soul and life of man. 
No rite, as circumcision or baptism ; no sacrifice, 
no priestly manipulations, could answer as condi- 
tions. If God could have appointed the mere doing 
of some particular thing as the condition of sal- 
vation, it might have made the matter very sim- 
ple; but it would have made salvation itself impos- 
sible. 

I long to show you how simple a thing it is, and 
you must help me by answering questions in your 
own hearts. Now, what is it that we need? I 
speak now of our personal, spiritual life, not of our 



218 



The Faith that Saves. 



need of things temporal, as food, raiment, help in 
trouble, deliverance from bodily danger, and such 
other things as belong to our daily external life. 
Men are sometimes frightened away from a truth by 
the name people give to it. It may be a foolish 
weakness, nevertheless a man who loves a truth 
more than he loves its form will respect this weak- 
ness. Our Lord did. Never did a teacher lay so 
little stress on mere form. Indeed, in the sense in 
which Church councils use such words, he never 
formulated a single doctrine — -not one. He did not 
formulate a doctrine even of his own nature or 
character. 

I do ndt in the least discount or question the 
writings of St. John or of St. Paul; I only call at- 
tention to a fact in the teachings of Jesus. It is St. 
John, not Jestis, who gives us the doctrine of the 
Word, the Logos; it is St. Paul, not Jesus, who 
gives us in form the doctrine of " justification by 
faith." The essential living truth that these words 
signify Jdsus did teach. But let us remember, with 
gratitude unutterable, that Jesus does nowhere stress, 
as necessary to salvation, the acceptance of a form 
of words, the understanding of definitions. 

It is important to understand this clearly, for 
sometimes people are frightened from the truths of 
religion by certain words and phrases, as if they 
were religion itself; as if because the words suggest 
something they do not understand that therefore 
they cannot understand religion itself. As if one 
should say: " I do not know what you mean by ' the 
primary colors;' therefore I do not know what 



The Faith that Saves. 



219 



you mean by light; in fact, I clo not believe there 
is such a thing." 

I Was asking just now, What is it that we need? 
Let us look, first of all, into our own hearts — con- 
sciousness, if you prefer. Look closely into your 
hearts and find the answer. This is the natural 
method; the gospel means nothing to us till there 
rises up in our own hearts the sense of need- — of 
something we have not in ourselves. There comes 
into every human heart the cry of John the Baptist 
before the manifestation of the Christ. And this 
wilderness cry, this call to repentance that has for 
its answer in obedient souls a cry for a Saviour, 
comes very early. Who shall say how soon? Long 
before a little child can manage to take into its com- 
prehension our form of words we call doctrine, it 
can take in the words which the Holy Ghost useth. 
How soon the Spirit may make itself understood by 
a child, I cannot tell; but far sooner than they be- 
lieve who are accustomed to say, when little chil- 
dren ask from God's people recognition of their 
rights in his Church, " They are too young to under- 
stand what they are doing." As if justification were 
by knowledge! If so, who then could be saved? 

Not long ago a friend, the pastor of a Church, 
wrote to me, telling me of a little girl four years old 
who wanted to join the Church. The little one's 
mother said that her child had been piously dis- 
posed from the first evidences of intelligence — that 
she lived religiously. But alas ! the child must have 
certain Church questions '-propounded" to it — about 
a "desire to flee from the wrath to come," "ratify- 



220 The Faith that Saves. 



ing " its " baptismal covenant," and such like! The 
"twelve" are not the only disciples of Jesus who 
forbid the little ones to come to him. What would 
Jesus have done had he been pastor when such a 
candidate came forward? We know what he did 
once. " He took them in his arms and said, Suffer 
the little children to come unto me, and forbid them 
not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 

This John the Baptist call we have been hearing 
since w r e could remember. It has been always fol- 
lowed by one feeling. Let us lay aside all technical 
words and phrases and ask, What does my heart 
tell me that I need? 

1. When we have done wrong — pardon. This is 
not peculiar to theology; it grows out of the very 
constitution of our nature and our relation to the 
eternal law of right. It is not a feeling confined to 
the religious sphere. It may exist without our 
thinking of God at all. It arises whenever a human 
being, child or man, reflects upon an act of disobe- 
dience to rightful authority, or a wrong done an- 
other. A little child who has never heard of God 
— a Chinese child, if you please — feels it, having 
disobeyed its mother. Let us respect facts whether 
we can account for them or not. Here is a fact, 
obvious, undeniable, unmistakable. Whenever we 
feel that we have done wrong, we feel the need of 
pardon. 

2. With farther knowledge of ourselves — a knowl- 
edge that may not have found definitions as yet — 
we realize a certain tendency to wrong-doing. We 
very early distinguish between the wrong thing 



The Faith that Saves. 



221 



done and the tendency to the doing of it. "With the 
feeling that we need pardon for what we have done 
very soon comes the feeling that we need some sort 
of change on account of what we are ; a change that 
will take from us that something whose natural 
drift is evil, and of the bringing into us of some- 
thing whose drift is good. St. Paul justifies me 
here. So does Horace when he speaks of one who 
" saw the better way and pursued the worse." You 
and I have felt this many times. 

3. Moreover, when we do not only see the right, 
but prefer it, we still feel the need of help that we 
may do the right. Prayer is an instinctive cry for 
this help. Who is there that does not feel this need 
of help in his efforts to do right, and to be what he 
feels that he ought to be and what he wishes to be? 
There never was a human being who never had this 
feeling. At all events, you have had this feeling, 
and you have it now while I speak to you. Tell me, 
is there any thing unnatural, any thing contradic- 
tory of your past experience, or of your present con- 
sciousness, in what I have said? You might have 
used different words in stating it, but have I not in- 
dicated the facts in your case ? Who of us has not 
felt a need of pardon for what we have done; a 
change in us; help to do and to be right and pure? 
But these things are meant when the Church speaks 
of (1) the forgiveness of sin; (2) the new birth, or a 
change of heart; (3) divine grace to help us. 

Feeling all these things, penitent David prayed: 
"Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine 
iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, God, and 



222 



The Faith that Saves. 



renew a right spirit within me. Restore unto me 
the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy 
free spirit." 

I speak now of Christ's answer to this cry. 

The gospel is called "good news," because it 
offers the helps we need — pardon, a new heart, and 
grace. Jesus says: " I am the true life; " "He that 
believeth on me shall never die; " " He that believeth 
shall be saved." He says also, "He that believeth 
not shall be damned." St. Paul, and every other 
true preacher from his days, speaks of "being jus- 
tified by faith." He says also, "The just shall live 
by faith." 

All depends on faith, whether we ask Jesus, or 
Paul, or any other who knows the mind of Christ. 
What, then, is faith? What is believing? 

It is worth your remembrance and best reflection : 
Christ never defines faith— that is, tells us exactly 
what it is. No inspired writer attempts a definition 
of this sort. Only ordinary and uninspired men do 
this. Why did Jesus not define faith — tell us ex- 
actly what it is? 

Because, 1. He could not; faith is incapable of 
such definition. Only complex things, or things 
limited, can be defined. Defined means to mark the 
limits. Simple things cannot be defined. There are 
truths, principles, powers, that are like ultimate facts 
in science. You cannot go beyond them. You can 
state them — that is all. Ask your man of science, 
"What is water?" "That is easj 7 ," he will say; 
"it is a fluid composed of two gases, oxygen and 
hydrogen, combined in certain definite proportions." 



The Faith that Saves. 223 



Ask him, " What is oxygen? " He will say, " Why, 
oxygen is oxygen." Why does n't he define oxygen? 
It is simple; it is an ultimate fact; it is so far, in 
the history of the laboratory, incapable of analysis. 
Truths and principles and influences that reach into 
infinite realities cannot be defined. Faith is an ul- 
timate fact in the spiritual world, and its reach is 
boundless. You had as well attempt to fix the 
boundaries of space. If you conclude, now, that 
faith is not real, that it is not important, because 
indefinable, you will conclude most unwisely. For 
the most real things in the universe, and the most 
important, are indefinable. What is so real, so im- 
portant, as love? But it is indefinable, as beauty is 
indefinable. So is holiness — indeed, all the greatest 
facts in life, and the dominant forces of the uni- 
verse. May we not say, with great reverence, God 
is the essential reality, and God is indefinable? 

2. There is another good reason why our Lord 
did not define faith; it -was not necessary to define 
it. For all men know what it means until they try 
to define it. Then they do not know; and the more 
they define, the less they know. 

But you will ask, What is faith? what is believ- 
ing? I answer, There are no words — only facts, in- 
stances, illustrations, paraphrases. 

Let us see. See that little baby on its mother's 
bosom, looking into her eyes while it draws from her 
breasts its life. It sees her love, and believes. Your 
conceited and impertinent logic will be asking pres- 
ently, What is it, this faith of the baby? Ask the 
baby; it can tell you as well as my Lord Bacon can. 



224 



The Faith that Saves. 



By and by that baby, now a tired and hungry 
boy, comes to the mother and says, " Mother, please 
give me a piece of bread." How the boy would be 
stunned by refusal! Why? Because the request 
grew out of faith. Years come and go. That boy, 
once the clinging baby, is now a man, no longer 
young. He seeks once more that mother's loving 
breast. Storm-tossed and weary, the broken spirit 
longs to feel again the sweet support of a mother's 
arms. And with absolute confidence he comes and 
lays his head on the mother's lap. What does it 
mean? Faith. 

Let us look at the matter in another light, as re- 
lated to the activities of life. See the boy Warren 
Hastings, lying full-length on a hilUside one autumn 
evening, gazing at the hall and home of his ances- 
tors, and resolving to reclaim it from alien hands, 
or die in the attempt. That purpose fired his heart 
and nerved his arm for forty years. What is the 
very center and main-spring of such a purpose, and 
of such a history, but faith — faith that it could be 
done? " Faith is," indeed, " the substance of things 
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." One 
trouble is, you think, that faith, as a saving princi- 
ple, faith in religious experiences, is a strange, un- 
accountable, and altogether different thing from any 
other faith. You do not want it explained any- 
where else; you accept facts— you believe, and go 
on with all the activities and realities of life. 

Do you say, This is because religious faith is con- 
cerned with things invisible? Not so; all faith is 
concerned with things invisible. The baby's faith 



The Faith that Saves. 



225 



is not in the face of the mother it sees, not in the 
arms it feels, not in the voice it hears, but in the 
love it neither sees, nor feels, nor hears. 

You are asking again, But what is faith in Christ? 
I answer, Just that, and nothing else— faith in 
Christ. This is not trifling with you, or making 
light of your perplexities. It is the right answer 
to give you, and there is no other. Why don't you 
come, with your cold-blooded logic, and ask me 
what is the baby's faith in its mother's love? It 
would be quite as reasonable and profitable. The 
faith of the baby is not a simpler thing, not a less 
indefinable thing, than is saving faith in Jesus 
Christ. Of saving faith, it is Bushnell, I think, 
who says, " It is an act of trust by which one being, 
a sinner, commits himself to another being, a 
Saviour." Long ago, when I read these words, I 
was glad. I thought I had found a definition of 
faith. But not so; this only tells us what one does 
who has faith. A sinner wants pardon, a new heart, 
and grace, to help him live a holy life, and he looks 
to Jesus for what he wants. That is all there is in 
it. As a mental process, believing in Jesus does 
not differ from believing in one's mother. The ob- 
ject is in one case my mother; in the other, it is 
my Saviour. 

Prom the beginning to the end of his ministry 
among men, Jesus was, in one way and another, 
persuading them to have faith. What sort of words 
did he use? What form did his invitation take? 
The simplest possible to words. It was always as 
simple as this: "Come unto me." 



226 



The Faith that Saves. 



The faith that saves trusts. It need not explain, 
and its efficacy does not depend upon the excellence 
of its explanation. 

1. Let us distinctly understand that the inex- 
plicable does not mean the untrue or impossible. 
Illustrations abound; the world is full of them. 
The fact is, every form of being has its secret. A 
blade of grass baffles all science. We cannot get 
at the how of things the most commonplace in the 
world. That religion has inexplicable facts, pro- 
cesses, and experiences, is no argument against its 
reality. If it were, it would be easy to prove that 
you yourself do not exist, since nobody can explain 
how you came to exist, how you continue to exist. 

2. Let us understand, also, that it is not our 
knowledge of the method of salvation, but our faith 
in its author, Jesus Christ, that saves. 

It is well enough to seek to know the divine 
mode of working, but not too curiously. You may 
be sure that a great deal of what is called " theol- 
ogy " is only a pitiful exhibition of human folly and 
pride. 

Let me explain clearly at this point. Is it neces- 
sary that one should "understand the plan of sal- 
vation," in order to be saved? Yes, if w^e are saved 
by the "plan," and not by Jesus Christ. Yes, if 
justification is by knowledge, and not by faith. 

Why do you look so doubtfully upon a child, only 
four years old, that prays to the Father in heaven 
and trusts in him when it wants a place among 
God's people? Because you doubt if it "under- 
stands the plan of salvation." Millions of grown 



The Faith that Saves. 



227 



people have thought in such a case, "That child 
does not understand the nature of its responsibilities 
in joining the Church." What if it does not? Who 
is saved by any such understanding? Not one hu- 
man soul. 

Let us go to Simon's house, as Jesus reclined at 
his table. A penitent woman — " a woman that had 
been a sinner " — approaches the Lord. Such women 
were not afraid to go to him, and he was not afraid 
to have them come. It is such as we who are afraid 
— God forgive our conceited Pharisaism ! She breaks 
an alabaster-box, and anoints his feet; she weeps 
upon them; she washes them with her tears; she 
wipes them with the hairs of her head. 

Did she understand the plan of salvation? What 
did she know about the Logos? About vicarious 
atonement? About original sin ? " the federal head- 
ship of Adam?" about the Catechism? or the Creed? 
about theology? I do not despise catechisms and 
creeds and theology, if kept in their place. But 
do not hang them on a cross and tell me, "Under- 
stand these, and you will be saved." It is a fearful 
thing when men make a stumbling-block of their 
so-called science of salvation, so blocking the way 
of life with it that people cannot be saved. 

No; the penitent woman did not understand the- 
ology. There was a great pain in her heart, and 
she came to Jesus for help, just as naturally as a 
poor child, shivering from a weary tramp through 
darkness and blinding snow, draws near the light 
and spreads its hands toward the warmth of the 
fire in a loving home. 



228 



The Faith that Saves. 



St. Paul understood a good deal about the plan 
of salvation, but he was not saved by that knowl- 
edge, but by his faith in Christ Jesus, whom he re- 
ceived as his Teacher, Priest, and King. All per- 
fect faith receives Christ in this threefold character, 
but millions have been saved who never thought of 
either of these words as applied to Christ. 

What did the poor thief on the cross know about 
the threefold offices? What does a poor heathen — 
a Chinaman in Shanghai wandering in his darkness 
till he comes in, some Sunday morning, to " Trinity 
Church," and hears our own Young Allen tell the 
story of the cross, till his heart is moved and he 
falls in love'with Jesus — what does he know about 
a creed concerning him? 

Pardon me, good women, who hear me to-day, 
how is your religion related to your doctrinal 
knowledge of Christ? your understanding of what 
is meant by such words as "atonement," "vicarious 
suffering," "the eternal word?" You do not, in 
your best religious moods, and in your deepest re- 
ligious experiences, think of such things. And 
nobody does. Christ Jesus satisfies your souls; 
therefore you come to him; it is enough. You are 
saved by a person, and not by a plan. 

Let Paul tell us, and John, and Luther, and Cal- 
vin, and Wesley, and Edwards, and the other im- 
mortals among saints and thinkers, whether the 
faith that saved them was dependent upon their 
knowledge of how they were saved, or upon their 
comprehension of the mysteries of the divine nat- 
ure. Xo; Paul says, "0 the depth of the riches 



The Faith that Saves. 



229 



both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" Wes- 
ley said when he was about to be " translated that 
he should not see death," 

I the chief of sinners am, 
Yet Jesus died for me. 

How can we believe in Jesus? Ah! that is an- 
other question. If we do not want him we cannot 
believe in him. But if we truly feel the need he 
came to supply, if we want him truly, we cannot 
help believing in him. And be sure, Jesus is what 
we want. 

Tou do not understand this? That is because 
you neither know yourself nor Jesus. 

"But I do not understand some verses in Genesis, 
and Paul says some things that trouble me." And 
you have come to this refuge have you? As if un- 
derstanding Genesis were any more the condition 
of salvation than understanding creation. You do 
not deny the creation, do you? Satan is indeed 
hard pressed when he leads you into such a castle 
of doubt as this. 

Let me say to you, in conclusion, for this time: I 
am not in the least troubled by any discoveries, or 
so-called discoveries, of science. I rejoice in all the 
discoveries. They teach me more of my Father and 
my Saviour. Nor does my faith — the faith that 
brings me comfort — depend upon the answers that 
wise and good men make to the unbelievers. I do 
not believe that geology contradicts Moses; I do 
not believe that there is in dead matter "the prom- 
ise and potency " of the universe teeming with life. 



230 



The Faith that Saves. 



But if there never was a deluge, nor a Tower of 
Babel, nor a hundred other things that infidels have 
caviled at, and that foolish people have ridiculed, 
this I know: here still is Jesus. Here are his words, 
here his life, here his death. He stands fast, though 
the heavens fall. 

Pardon an absurd illustration of a form of doubt 
hard pressed for an objection. One of our young 
men came to me the other day, telling me that some 
one calling himself an infidel had been troubling 
him about an alleged discrepancy between two gen- 
ealogical tables — one in Matthew and one in Luke. 

If there were such discrepancy, what of that? No 
man is saved by faith in a list of names. If the 
names of men were all blotted out, "the Name that 
is above every name that is named in heaven or 
earth" abides. In that Name we trust; in him we 
believe who is called by that name. Jesus said, 
" He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." 
This is the theology that saves men. "Pie that be- 
lieveth shall not perish" — cannot. Faith in Jesus 
and damnation cannot coexist. He that believes is 
saved; he that continues to believe lives forever; he 
that believeth not is condemned already. It was at 
the grave of Lazarus that Jesus said: "I am the 
resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whoso- 
ever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 



ST. PAUL TO YOUNG MEN. 



[OXFORD, FEBRUARY 5, 1882,] 



"Be sober-in inded." Titus ii. 9. 

THE germ -thought of this text is self-restraint. 
The Bible doctrine of human life demands re- 
straint; that is, the right government and not the 
extirpation of our nature. The right understand- 
ing of this distinction I look upon as a matter of 
the first importance. Let us use great plainness of 
speech, and endeavor honestly to get at the truth of 
things. 

First of all then, let us consider what kind of a 
being God made man to be. 

1. He is an animal. Considered in respect simply 
of his body and its life, a man is as truly and purely 
an animal as is a horse. The general structure is 
alike — a combination of bones, muscles, nerves, tis- 
sues. The great vital processes are alike in each. 
So far as mere body is concerned their mode of com- 
ing into this world and getting out of it are the 
same. They hold identical relations to the law of 
gravity, the processes of chemistry, and the mechan- 
ical forces. They have in their constitution many 
characteristics in common. Their wants, appetites, 
instincts, in so far as these grow out of bodily or- 
ganization, are alike. For example, hunger is the 
same sort of thing in the horse and in the man ; the 

(231) 



232 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



reproductive instinct is the same. So is the dispo- 
sition to rest that follows exertion, and the desire 
of motion that follows repose. 

Now let us ask, Is there a place in nature — that 
is, in God's world — for such an animal as man? 
There is not only a place for him, there is need of 
him. Animal life would be incomplete without 
him — without him considered simply as an animal. 
All other things, animate and inanimate, are a true 
prophecy of his coming. In man are the arche- 
types of all the ideas set forth in the creation of 
other beings in nature. This impressive fact is as 
obvious, perhaps more so, in fetal as in post-natal 
life. No wonder so many writers have called man 
a microcosm — a little world in himself, an epitome 
of the universe. As Mrs. Browning sings: 

Since God collected and resumed in man 

The firmaments, the strata, and the lights, 

Fish, fowl, and beast, and insect — all their trains 

Of various life caught back upon his arm, 

Reorganized and constituted man, 

The microcosm, the adding up of works. 

What we first seek for this morning, young men, 
is this: To find a true, rational, and scriptural law 
and rule of life for this wondrous animal — man. Of 
course we will fail if we forget the other and higher 
elements in man's complex nature. We cannot, in 
any sensible view of man as an animal, forget man 
as mind, or man as spirit; we cannot forget either 
his intellect or his affections. But in our attempts 
to teach the rights and wrongs of things we too 
often forget man as an animal. When we have 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



233 



thought of him so we have been prone to despise 
him. This is irrational and a sort of profanity, 
since it casts contempt upon the works of God — 
works that he pronounced "very good/' 

For my part, I firmly believe that no little non- 
sense, false philosophy, and sham religion has con- 
fused council in the consideration of man as an 
animal— an animal, let us remember, that God made. 
Let us endeavor to get at the very bottom truth of 
things. We may fail, but we can at least make an 
honest effort. 

I bring the discussion at once to the altar and ask, 
Is there sin — that is, any violation of law, the law 
of his very life — in what is simply normal, natural 
if you please, to the nature, the essential constitu- 
tion of this animal, man? Let us take a concrete 
case: Is hunger sinful ? It is a purely bodily, animal 
sensation, whether in the tolerable disquiet in the 
nerves that govern the digestive apparatus when he 
has passed his usual feeding hour, or in the intoler- 
able agonies of starvation. Is hunger therefore 
sinful — sinful because it is a bodily sensation ? No; 
but whatever misuses, abuses this appetite of hun- 
ger, whether it be gluttony or fanatical starving, is 
sin. Gluttony violates the law of bodily health and 
degrades the man, considered simply as an animal. 
For no mere animal, under normal conditions, ever 
commits the sin of gluttony. Gluttony sins on the 
side of over-indulgence; asceticism sins on the side 
of excessive abstinence. Both violate law, both are 
sinful, both are followed by the " wages of. sin," 
both produce disease and tend to death. Fanatical 



234 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



fasting — fasting that goes so far that it produces 
disease — is as sinful as gluttony. 

I have taken the food-appetite and hunger, the 
indication and effect of the lack of food, for illus- 
tration, because it is easy of apprehension. But 
other natural appetites and instincts of the animal, 
man, are in the same category. There is nothing 
ignoble or worthy of contempt, there is no sin in 
the appetite itself, whether it be hunger, thirst, the 
reproductive instinct, or any other. Sin appears 
with its abuse — that is, a use not according to the 
law ordained for its regulation. 

This is not an argument that will extenuate or 
condone licentiousness; it is an argument that for- 
bids it most sternly and absolutely; it is an argu- 
ment that finds for chastity a foundation impregna- 
ble — a foundation of law inherent in the very nature 
and constitution of man himself, a law primordial, 
that existed and pronounced its benedictions and 
enforced its penalties before Moses and Sinai — a 
law of which the seventh commandment and all its 
cognates are but the formulated and authoritative 
statements. 

You may be sure of it; the law of chastity and 
the law of moderation in eating were not ordained 
by Moses, or even by the Creator in Moses's time. 
They were before Moses ; God impressed them upon 
the essential constitution of the first man he ever 
made. And they would survive, instinct with sav- 
ing or avenging power, if every Bible were burned 
out of the world. 

NovV what are men, trying to fill aright the true 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



235 



ends of their existence, to do with the appetites and 
instincts that inhere in the very organization of their 
bodies and constitution of their being? 

There are two answers proposed to men seeking 
the way of life. Asceticism, which is one of the 
blind fanaticisms that has intruded itself into much 
human thinking, says, Up-root them, crucify them, 
destroy them utterly. A class of so-called devo- 
tional books, that have done much harm in the 
world, are full of this folly. We need not go to 
books for proof of the statement that one answer to 
the question is, these appetites and passions must be 
destroyed utterly and crucified out of existence. 
Scores and hundreds of times have most of us heard 
men pray that God would " utterly consume our pas- 
sions and appetites ! " All this is irrational; more, 
it is blasphemous. It is to take to God's altar a 
piece of his handiwork, and tell him to his face that 
he blundered in making it; that he did not know 
how to make man; that he must now atone for the 
blunder by destroying what, according to the divine 
plan, is an integral and essential part of him. 

Such philosophy is a hollow sham, and such 
prayers are insincere. Where they are sincere, they 
are the indications of a kind and degree of insanity. 
No man in his senses ever really wants God to an- 
swer such a prayer. Such prayers are made with 
the full and comfortable assurance that they will 
not be answered. Elsewise they would not be made 
at all. 

Sincere or insincere, it all comes to nothing. You 
cannot extirpate these natural promptings and in- 



236 



St. Paul to Youkg Men. 



stincts without marring and destroying God's work* 
See Simeon Stylites, celebrated in legend and song, 
as a typical man among those who have sought 
purity of soul by abusing and destroying their bod- 
ies, waging fierce war upon the very natures that 
God gave them for noble and necessary uses. See 
the crazy devotees of all false religions — whether 
Buddhistic, Mohammedan, Romish, or pseudo-Prot- 
estant — trying to starve, and flagellate, and destroy 
their bodies to the point of overcoming the devil. 
Such fanatics may reduce themselves to mere skel- 
etons covered with rags, but naturfe is there, quiv- 
ering under the rags, potential, if not active, pro- 
testing against the wrong. How Satan mocks, with 
jeering and endless laughter, such mindless folly ! 
How these fanatics contemn the wonderful story of 
Eden, where man, as God made him, was placed 
with his Creator's blessing pronounced upon him ! 
How they contemn the more wonderful story of 
Bethlehem and of the eternal Word made flesh! 

What does St. Paul say to us, young men ? " Be 
sober-minded;" practice restraint, self-restraint; 
keep to law — the law of nature, of health, of decen- 
cy, of virtue, of chastity, of life, of God. 

But does not St. Paul, in another place, speak of 
crucifying the flesh with the lusts thereof? Yes; 
and the argument, as well as the figurative terms 
which he employs, shows that he does not mean 
extirpation, but government. Does he not speak 
of " keeping his body under?" Yes; but this 
means subordination, not destruction. Does he not 
teach us to pray that our " bodies," as well as our 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



237 



" souls," may be " sanctified ? " Yes ; and the prayer 
is graciously answered in and for both body and 
soul, when both are in their place, obeying the di- 
vine law of their existence. 

2. Looking further at this being man, that we 
have so far this morning been considering only as 
an animal, we find something more than body ; we 
find that which we call mind — something more than 
we can discuss at this time or fully understand at 
any time. But keeping sight of the text and those 
principles and powers in man that make self-re- 
straint necessary and a supreme virtue, we find that 
the mind has certain tendencies or cravings that we 
call desires, just as the body has certain cravings 
that we call appetites. Among others we find in 
all normal minds the desire of knowledge, of power, 
of superiority, of property, of praise. These de- 
sires are as spontaneous as any instincts. 

Are they sinful in themselves? It is often taken 
for granted that these natural desires of the mind 
are in themselves very wicked. By many they are 
denounced, sneered at, prayed against — in words at 
least — as if they were mortal sins. 

Now these desires are normal to the mind — they 
grow out of its constitution; just as hunger is nor- 
mal to the body when it needs food ; just as hunger 
grows out of the very organization of the body. 
And they are as innocent in their lawful use and 
gratification. "0!" but says one, with an eye on 
what he fancies to be a peril to orthodoxy, " these 
dispositions, the desire of property, superiority, 
praise, and such like, are sinful, though natural, for 



238 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



they came through the fall! they are the outcrop- 
pings of our depravity!" Little doubt have I as to 
the fact of what we call depravity, but will some 
one be good enough to tell me how he knows that 
these natural desires of the mind are any more due 
to the fall than are hunger and the other bodily ap- 
petites. Is it too much to suppose that Adam and 
Eve in Eden, without food, would have suffered 
hunger ? It would be as easy to conceive of a square 
circle, or of a four-sided triangle, as to conceive of a 
man not hungry when he lacked food, or of a man 
displeased when he receives deserved approbation. 
There is neither Bible nor reason for any such no- 
tion as that what is- essential to the very constitu- 
tion of a man came to him by any violation of the 
law of his being. Without these mental aptitudes 
man would be as unfit for the work of the world 
and the duties of human life as he would have been 
had his bodily organization lacked what is essential 
to the very existence of it. 

Does one quote our Lord's words: " How can ye 
believe which receive honor one of another? 99 His 
reproof of the disciples struggling for the preemi- 
nence? Of the Pharisees, ostentatious of their pi- 
ety ? I answer : J esus does reprove the unrestrained, 
ungoverned, inordinate seeking after honor — the 
making a business of it, the sacrificing other and 
higher things for it. But the natural instinct that 
finds satisfaction in praise he does not reprove ; he 
appeals to it. He offers rewards for well-doing; 
he says, " Well done, thou good and faithful serv- 
ant." In his letters to the Churches in Asia Mi- 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



239 



nor, our risen Lord commends every thing good in 
them. 

Let me bring this matter of the sinfulness or in- 
nocence of the desire of praise to a sharp issue. If 
all love of praise is wrong, then we ought to praise 
nothing. If all desire of success is wrong, then we 
ought not to try to succeed. 

Let us, in order to find out the truth more clear- 
ly, keep to the easy illustration and instance, the 
love of praise, remembering that the argument ap- 
plies to the other natural desires of the mind. If 
it is all wrong, we should praise nothing; we should 
be silent, except where we can condemn ; or so man- 
age our approval that those who have deserved and 
won it shall never hear of it — at least not in this 
world. If the love of praise, the desire of esteem, 
be in itself sinful, what are we to do about the meth- 
ods employed throughout the entire organization 
of human society? Is it a sin for the mother to 
pat the head of her little prattler, and tell him he 
has done well, when he has done well? If the sim- 
ple desire of praise is wrong, then is it wrong for 
the mother to praise her baby, for she gratifies this 
desire and strengthens it. Is it a sin for a husband 
to praise his wife, when she has done her part well? 
Is it a sin for the wife to let her husband see that 
she truly appreciates his struggles for the support 
of his family? Is it a sin for the faculty here to 
give students credit for what they do ? 

Why do I ask such questions ? To show how ab- 
surd are some notions that are urged upon people 
as virtues. 



240 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



"What a sham is all this philosophism and so- 
called religion that assumes to plant its iron heel on 
the human heart, and that esteems itself wise and 
good in proportion to its success in crushing out of 
it God-given instincts that he saw to be necessary 
to the constitution of humanity. It is an affecta- 
tion of humility that says, you are lost if you en- 
joy the approval of your friends, the praise of your 
fellow-men. What a sham to say: " I care nothing 
for what men think of me, say of me. I praise 
none. I receive praise from none." Profound ego- 
tism and mock humility are at the bottom of such 
talk as this. 

There is no human being of good sense, not ut- 
terly depraved, who is insensible to the good opinion 
of his fellow-men. It is only an all-consuming ego- 
tism, feeding upon the contemplation of its assumed 
incomparable excellence, that pretends to such in- 
difference. What is the divine law as to this in- 
born and innocent love of esteem? Restraint, not 
extirpation. What is the sin? Becoming a slave 
to the feeling — inordinate, selfish ambition, that 
blinds to better things; that makes men mean and 
false; that seeks its ends by unworthy and sinful 
methods. For illustration: it is not a sin, young 
men, for you to desire to excel in your class; it is a 
sin to cheat in order to excel. And it is a sin to be 
miserable and jealous if you fail. 

Secondly, it is not mere restraint, but self-re- 
straint; it is self-government that St. Paul enjoins 
upon us. 

What young men want (old men too, for that 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



241 



matter; also, women, very much — as being greatly 
exposed to the danger of having mere feeling to run 
away with them) is not merely restraint from with- 
out, as from an authority or government external 
to themselves. It is not the arrest upon evil ten- 
dencies that comes through authority — as the par- 
ent's, the school-master's, the policeman's — but a 
self-restraint, a self-government, that has its foun- 
dations, its laws, its administrations, in the very 
constitution of the man's self. A father once said 
to me of his boy, " I can trust him round the world." 
His boy deserved this high praise; he had in him 
this principle of self-restraint — he was a law unto 
himself. 

No one can be farther than I am from discredit- 
ing outside government — as that of the family, the 
school, the Church, the State. But this I do insist 
on: all outside government, if it fill its true place, 
has self-government for its end. 

Two weeks since I received a letter from one of 
our Emory boys, who will, I trust, be with us again 
after awhile. He is working his way, teaching 
school by day, studying by night, and so, by force 
of manliness, winning from poverty the opportunity 
of education. Sometimes he has given way to de- 
spondency, but he is getting the victory. Among 
other very sensible things, he wrote: 64 The hard 
part is in building up manhood within" He is be- 
ginning to understand what St. Paul is talking of 
in his letter to Titus. 

Not long ago a gentleman, living in one of our 
Georgia cities, said to me: "If I were not afraid to 
16 



242 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



trust my boy away from his mother, I would send 
him to college." I said in answer: "Your son must 
learn to stand alone ; more boys have been saved at 
Christian colleges than have ever been spoiled at 
them." On one occasion a good woman told me 
she wanted to come to Oxford and stay with her 
son till he finished his college course. I said to her, 
" Your boy will likely do better without you than 
with you/' How she stared at me with flashing 
eyes, her maternal soul making indignant protest. 
But I was right. 

I hear much about the danger of evil companion- 
ship, and I have seen much of it. But this I do say, 
and do you, young men, remember it: The youth 
who goes down easily under the pressure of temp- 
tation has himself to blame. He lacks self-restraint, 
self-government. A gay fellow asks you to go on a 
spree with him ; to drink, and to do other bad things. 
You go, and say in defense, " the boys persuaded 
me." That will not do ; it is a cowardly plea. What 
were you doing while they were persuading? 

There is no help for it in this world, and there 
ought to be no help for it ; you must stand on your 
own feet. You cannot be nursed always. Your 
character must have " root in itself; " else you have 
no character at all. Adam and Eve fell out of Eden 
without bad companionship; you may, if you 
will, rise out of this world and return to Eden in 
spite of the companionship you cannot altogether 
escape. 

Pray tell me how else can you do? You cannot 
get out of this world innocently till God takes you 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



243 



out. I tell you plainly, if you cannot acquire self- 
government you are lost. That is all. 

The good things in our Christian civilization may 
become occasions of evil. We have in our time all 
manner of societies to help men do right; we are 
much given to systems of cooperative morality. I 
say no word against these good societies; much 
good they do, no doubt. But if young men trust in 
them altogether, they become a delusion and a snare. 
They must trust in themselves also; above all, in 
God. Whenever a society weakens the sense of 
personal responsibility and enfeebles a man's true 
individuality, it has become a curse to him. 

By all means avoid occasions of evil; it is foolish 
to invite temptation; it is wicked to give assigna- 
tions to Satan. For it is still written, " Thou shalt 
not tempt the Lord thy God." 

It is wise and useful to seek all good influences. 
Seek them diligently, but not chiefly for the defense 
and support they bring you, but for the nurture 
that is in them. Seek them that you may grow 
strong in yourself. After a time a cripple must 
throw his crutch away; else he will always be a 
cripple. 

Above all things, " build up manhood within." 
You may avoid men, and shut yourself up in secret 
cells, but if you have no better guard than an iron 
door the enemy will come in ; if you have no better 
preventive against moral infection than isolation, 
you will perish of secret vices and be consumed 
from within. You may stay in your mother's room 
till your head is gray, and if there is no man in you, 



244 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



no self-restraint, no self-government, you will die 
of moral leprosy there, under her eyes. You must 
govern yourself, or go down. You are in the broad 
and rapid, and ofttimes turbulent, river of human 
life; you must swim or sink. 

I am now to offer you some arguments in favor of 
sober-mindedness, self-restraint, self-government, a 
balanced character: 

1. The necessity is based in man's complex nat- 
ure. He is not all animal, nor all intellect, nor all 
spirit. Yet this complexity is so divinely balanced 
that there need be no confusion, or disorder. Man 
— the animal — with appetites, passions, instincts; 
man — the being — with intellect, thinking, aspiring, 
seeking knowledge, striving after success, carrying 
on the world's business; man— rthe being with a 
soul — with many-sided affections, who can love and 
hate, hope and fear, suffer and enjoy, who is capable 
of right and wrong, who can be holy, and who can be 
wicked ; this complex man, yet one person, must be 
in harmony with himself. Each side of him, with all 
its powers, may be (and if he be sober-minded, self- 
restrained, self-governed, will be) helpful to every 
other side of him, and to the whole man when in his 
place and fulfilling the law of his life. The body, 
rightly used, helps the mind and the heart; the mind 
helps the body and the heart ; the heart helps the 
mind and the body — provided always that each obeys 
its own laws. Then there is harmony, equilibrium, 
health, and life. A man showed me in Willimantic, 
Connecticut, a great shaft of twenty-six tons weight, 
turning with almost inconceivable rapidity under the 



St. Paul to Young Men* 



245 



power delivered upon it from two great wheels — one 
driven by water and one by steam — itself propagat- 
ing this vast power through fifty thousand whirling 
spindles. Yet it was so nicely balanced that by push- 
ing against the end of it with a common pencil it 
was moved lengthwise half an inchj returning to its 
place without noise or jar the instant the pressure 
was withdrawn. It is in God's conception and plan 
of human life that it should, with vaster powers, be 
in perfect equilibrium. It is too plain to argue that 
where a machine is out of balance the greater 
its power and the swifter its motion the greater its 
disorder and the completer its ruin. It is sin that 
throws man out of balance. Its issue is disorder, 
confusion, endless riot, irreparable breakage, ruin 
complete, death without hope, and damnation with- 
out deliverance. 

2. The necessity of sober-mindedness, self-re- 
straint, self-government, is obvious from the nature 
of the appetites and desires themselves. They are 
impulses, and they are both blind and deaf. There 
is no more reason, or conscience, or will in them 
than there is in the attractions and repulsions of 
electricity. They know nothing, they care for 
nothing, but their special objects. They are impa- 
tient, clamorous, eager, imperious. They made 
Reuben, eldest born of the patriarch Jacob, their 
slave. The dying father, leaning on his staff while 
he blessed his children and "told them that which 
should befall them in the last days," touched the 
place of fatal weakness in Reuben, and left a warn- 
ing for us all. " Boiling over as water" (for this, 



246 



St. Paul to Young Men, 



some of the best Hebrew scholars tell us, is the cor- 
rect rendering), 46 thou shalt not excel." Reuben 
was the slave of his lower nature* and there was no 
hope for him. But God has not left us to the dom- 
ination of the blind forces that work within us. 
They must be governed from the higher nature, and 
they can be so governed — governed so w r ell that 
they become the ministers of our better lives. In- 
tellect must see what passion cannot see ; conscience 
must feel what passion cannot feel; the sovereign 
will must give the w T ord of law and sway the scep- 
ter of dominion. 

3. Self-restraint is necessary lest man's lower nat- 
ure get the mastery of his higher nature. The lower 
nature — with its appetites, passions, instincts, de- 
sires — is in itself innocent. Sin comes in when the 
servant becomes master. If the lower nature get 
the mastery, then the whole man is pulled down. 
If the higher, then the whole man is lifted up. 
When the lower nature governs, then the man grav- 
itates out of his true sphere into the sphere of 
beasts and devils. I say beasts and devils, for there 
are in man powers which, abused and perverted, 
tend not only to the sphere of beasts, but to the 
sphere of devils. It is not a rhetorical phrase and 
parade of w T ords I use; it is the bald statement of 
an appalling truth and fact. The animal part of us 
tends to bestialism, and the lower intellect tends to 
demonism when the higher man of reason and con- 
science and will is dethroned. Bulwer's Margrave 
was both a beast and a demon. It is significant and 
marvelously instructive that the demons felt at home 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



247 



in the swine when they had long reigned in the 
man of Gadara. Upon what intimate and easy 
terms do Satan and his familiars find themselves 
with one who gives rein to his lower nature — who 
does not control, w r ho is controlled by it. Every 
gate is open to them; every sense becomes an inlet 
to a broad avenue; they go and come at their own 
Will, bearing master-keys that unlock all doors. Of 
such a man it may be truly said, He has sold his 
soul to the devil, and the proof of the purchase is 
that Satan rules the mind and the higher nature 
through the lower and all the instincts that bind soul 
and body together. This is the meaning of much of 
the tragedy that is in human life. It is the mean- 
ing that is in the Faust and the legends of many na- 
tions of infernalpartnerships between Satan and men. 
Commenting on the words of the demoniac of 
Gadara, addressed to our Lord, Dean Trench has 
well expressed a fearful truth exemplified in the ex- 
perience of thousands of our sin-cursed race: "In 
his reply, 'My name is Legion, for we are many, truth 
and error are fearfully blended. Not on one side 
only, but on every side, the walls of his spirit have 
been broken down, and he laid open to all the in- 
cursions of evil, torn asunder in infinite ways, now 
under one hostile and hated power, now r under an- 
other. The destruction is complete; they who rule 
over him are £ lords many.' Only by an image 
drawn from the reminiscences of his former life can 
he express his sense of his own condition. He had 
seen the serried ranks of a Roman legion, that fear- 
ful instrument of conquest, that sign of terror and 



24S 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



fear to the conquered nations, and before which the 
Jew more especially quailed. Even such, at once 
one and many, cruel, and inexorable, and strong, 
were the powers that were tyrannizing over him." 

I am now to present to you some considerations 
that should persuade you to accept St. Paul's advice, 
and to make it a principle of your life. 

1. It is advice. Advice is the only substitute for 
the wisdom that comes through experience. Think 
of it, young friends, you need the wisdom of expe- 
rience now more than you can ever need it again, 
and you have less of it than you will ever have 
hereafter. For you are now at the beginning, and 
the ending is. for the most part, infolded in the 
beginning, just as the tree is infolded in the acorn. 

What are you to do? I will tell you what Satan 
will tempt you to do. It is to be headstrong — rather, 
passion-strong and head-weak. 

Take the risk? says one. What *s the need? You 
do not take such risks in less important matters. 
AVhy do not electricians repeat Franklin's experi- 
ment with the kite? It has been made and needs 
not to be made again. You take up science where 
your predecessors laid it down; you begin with 
what they have proved and go on to prove more. 
Apply the principle to the science of human life. 
Take the advice of those who know. You would 
not wish to make an ocean voyage with the captain 
of a ship who scorned the knowledge of an. expe- 
rienced pilot, preferring to guess his way among 
shallows and rocks. 

2. Our argument commends St. Paul's advice not 



St. Paul to Young Men. 249 



merely as to the right subordination of our lower 
nature, but as to our whole course of life and prin- 
ciples of conduct. Self-restraint, which is sober- 
mindedness, is necessary lest we shape our plans, 
make our decisions, and determine our lines of ac- 
tion on mere impulse, whim, caprice; by the clamors 
of some sin-governed appetite, some inordinate de- 
sire. So decided Esau when he sold his birthright. 
He was hungry, and before him was the savory mess 
of pottage. Hunger seized the reins. Honor, grat- 
itude, piety — these were trampled under foot; the 
animal in him triumphed in a paroxysm of blind 
and mindless impulse. And then, through long 
and unhappy years, the higher man looked back 
with bitter remorse upon the folly and sin of one 
hour's indulgence, seeking, with scalding tears, a 
place for repentance and finding none. 

Study Esau's case, young men; you are greatly 
prone to decide the gravest questions on the merest 
whims, to do things for which you can give no good 
reason, and for which you never can give any rea- 
son. A dozen times, during the years I have been 
in Emory College, have I had, as explanation, this 
answer from a wayward and foolish boy, throwing 
away his opportunity of education : "01 do n't 
know; somehow I am dissatisfied." This would 
be answer enough from a mere animal moving, with- 
out wisdom of choice, from one place to another, 
but it is not a fit word for a man to say. 

Young men, if you live to middle-life — to say 
nothing of old age, or of eternity — you will hold a 
"judgment-day" of your own, and upon yourselves. 



250 



St. Paul to Young Men, 



You are now twenty, may be younger. You decide 
under the dictation of a blind impulse some grave 
matter; your decision will show its influence on 
every day of your whole after-life. You take the 
bit in your teeth; you will have no advice. Very 
well; you Will have your way for a time, and then 
your way will have you. When you are forty, it 
may be, but some time, sure, you will review your 
case. Then you will summon passion and preju- 
dice and the whole troop of your whimsical follies 
to the judgment-bar of conscience and reason. You 
will convict the culprit; he will be punished. Alas, 
he cannot then pay what he will owe! 

To save ourselves from the fatal blunders and 
misjudgrnents which issue from capricious and 
Avhimsical decisions, and from the multiform and 
countless evils that follow them, we need not simply 
thoughtful moments, but a fixed habit of thought- 
fulness, sober-mindedness, self-restraint. Without 
the habitj we are liable to break down at any 
moment of pressure. It is the fixed habit of self- 
restraint that stores up in the character reserved 
power against the day of trial, jiist as it is the train- 
ing of years of service that gives the veteran sea- 
captain nerve and skill to carry his ship safely 
through the fury of tempests when they break upon 
him. We may be sure that the strength of char- 
acter that meets and survives a supreme trial may 
not, by any effort of will, be summoned when the 
emergency is upon us. 

I suggest, in conclusion, some helps in the forma- 
tion of a fixed habit of self-restraint. 



St. Paxil to Young Men* 



251 



You ask, How am I to secure the mastery of 
my lower self? to form this fixed habit of self- 
government? I will try to help you to the right 
answer. 

1. Make up the issue now, Find out which is 
the real master, the lower or the higher nature 
within you — the animal or the spiritual man. 
Study your own case; then you will understand the 
method of treatment. To change the figure, con- 
sider well which side of your fortress of " Man- 
soul" is weakest* Then you will know on which 
side to set your watch against the devil. For he 
will make his attack on that side. Remember the 
soldier's maxim, "The strength of a fortress is 
measured by its weakest side." 

Let me show you what I mean by making the 
issue. I suppose a dase which I trust may not fit 
your experience. You are disposed to be a drunk- 
ard. You are warned by some friend, both wise 
and loving. You answer, " I can't help it." Now, 
do you mean that? Then the animal part of you 
is master, and the higher man must rise up and do 
quick and fierce battle. He must conquer, or the 
whole man dies. That despotic beast of a body — 
for when it gets control of a man it is a mere beast 
— will, like the blind Samson, pull down ruin upon 
the whole man. 

I will suppose another case, and I speak of it 
with shuddering horror. You are given to licen- 
tiousness; the fearful habit is fixing itself upon you. 
Unchaste thoughts inflame your blood; unchaste 
deeds are fixing the perdition of a licentious char- 



252 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



acter upon your whole manhood. The warning 
voice cries to you, " Stop right there! — that path you 
tread leads down to death; it takes hold on hell." 
You answer, "I can't stop." Do you mean that in 
sober earnest? Then the beast, the mere brute 
beast in you, is master. The battle is on you. Now 
gather up all your energies, brace yourself for a 
mighty struggle; you are in the arena, the wild 
beasts are upon you. Do or die. 

2. Begin. No matter what the issue is about, 
begin now self-restraint, self-government. You are 
not to treat your instinctive appetites and desires 
as if they were demons to be driven out. You are 
to use them as ministers to your higher life. To be 
such they must be subordinate; they become demons 
only when they become masters. 

I say, Begin. It may be so simple a thing, so 
commonplace a thing as overeating. What you 
w^ant to do now is not to destroy the appetite for 
food, but to regulate it. Whatever the case is, 
begin. 

3. As a very great aid in this effort to fix the 
habit of self-restraint, make it the rule of all your 
thinking to try to find out the very truth of things. 
Else appearances will be always deceiving you. 
One instance, as illustration, I mention: Are you 
about to become a slave to your ambition? A clear 
view of the realities of things — of life and death, 
of time and eternity — will quickly abate the inten- 
sity of the fevered dream. 

4. Learn to wait. If your life-plans leave out the 
long-run, they are childish. If you live worthily, 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



253 



you can afford to wait, and waiting will mightily 
belp you to learn your difficult lesson of self-re- 
straint. 

5. Dig down till you strike the granite. You 
will need the brace of one grand truth and law, too 
often overlooked, but without whose uplifting power 
no human life ever yet rose into lofty proportions. 
Learn then that he who loves and obeys God can 
suffer no fatal hurt from any fate in any world. 
This brings me to say that the self-restraint, the 
self-government, which I am trying to commend to 
you cannot exist if we leave out of view eternity 
and its high motives. 

6. You expect me to speak to-day of the relations 
of experimental religion to self-restraint. Not to- 
day. We tell you that every time we meet in this 
place. We do this every time we speak of religion; 
every time we preach repentance and obedience; 
every time we tell the story of "the "Word made 
flesh." It is enough to say to-day: You cannot 
succeed without God's help. Without Christ work- 
ing in you, the lower will be too strong for the high- 
er nature. But where he comes in, the evil spirits 
go out. 

You can get help if you want it. Sin abounds; 
grace much more. " They that be with you are 
more than they that are with them." It is by 
faith, by prayer, by obedience, by the work of the 
Holy Ghost, that you prevail. It is by religion 
penetrating every thought and plan of life, perme- 
ating every fiber of your manhood. It is the " mind 
that was in Christ " dwelling in you. 



254 



St. Paul to Young Men. 



Just now I spoke of equilibrium — of a balanced 
life and character. It is not a fancy. Where Christ's 
will becomes the governing principle in body, mind, 
and spirit, then we have such perfect adjustments 
of relations, and such blessed harmonies of life, as 
shame the fabled music of the spheres. 



QUIT YOU LIKE MEN, 

[OXFORD, MARCH 26, 1882-DURING THE GREAT REVIVAL.] 



"Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 
Let all your things be done with charity. 5 ' 1 Cor. xvi. 13, 14. 

THERE are few things in this world more inter- 
esting than a genuine revival of religion. A 
religious awakening attracts the people as nothing 
else does. No matter who gives direction to such 
a meeting, no matter who it is that asks the atten- 
tion of the people, no matter where its wonders are 
wrought — whether in the city or in the woods, no 
matter what class of people are drawn into it — 
whether the cultured or the unlettered — there is one 
uniform result, a genuine revival attracts the people 
like a great magnet. There may be the eloquence 
of Maffitt, the illiterate zeal of Harrison, the ear- 
nest persistence and hard sense of Moody, the bizarre 
extravagances of the captains of the "Salvation 
Army," but after all it is the revival itself that at- 
tracts. If there be a profound religious awakening 
in any community, there will be crowded houses, no 
matter who preaches, or whether anybody preaches. 

It is not mere curiosity that attracts the crowd; 
it is something deeper and stronger. It is first of 
all an interest in men. Whatever stirs a man's 
heart profoundly interests his brother-man, whether 

(255) 



256 



Quit You Like Men. 



it be joy or grief, a deep conviction of sin, or a rapt- 
urous joy in deliverance from it, or even the gain or 
loss of earthly fortunes. 

But this is not all; except on the one subject of 
religion, men presently tire of any subject. There 
is no political, or social, or commercial question that 
can draw the people, night after night, as a revival 
draws and holds them. Let the most wise and elo- 
quent man in the United States attempt to hold the 
same audience for thirty consecutive nights in the 
discussion of the same subject. He would lose his 
audience. Let thirty of the ablest try the experi- 
ment, a new man coming forward each night. How 
long would they hold the attention of the multi- 
tude? But we have seen churches crowded night 
after night for many weeks, when there was neither 
learning to instruct nor eloquence to move the peo- 
ple; when there was only exhortation, w T ith endless 
iteration of appeals, with singing of a kind to throw 
musicians and singers into despair. 

The truth is this: There is no subject, there never 
was in any age or nation any subject, about which 
men can think, that has such a hold upon human 
nature as religion — as man's relation to the invisible 
and eternal powers. It is, in its last analysis, the 
thought of God in the human consciousness — a 
thought the most deeply fixed and the hardest to 
shake off — that explains the marvelous attracting 
power of a general and deep religious awakening. 

We have seen many revivals in Oxford. God's 
seal of approval has rested on this Christian Col- 
lege from the beginning to this good time. Since 



Quit You Like Men. 



257 



1856 I have shared in the labors and rewards of 
most of these meetings. In essence they have been 
alike, but different in their characteristic manifesta- 
tions. It is so always in all Churches. In some 
revivals we have a great deal of noise and witness 
many expressions of emotional excitement. Others, 
in all respects as genuine, and in many respects 
more satisfactory, are noiseless and calm. People 
will differ in opinion as to the value of this or that 
phase of religious experience and expression. They 
differ about these things as they differ about all 
other things — it is largely a matter of nerves and 
temperament. 

It is a matter of small moment whether our per- 
sonal tastes are satisfied as to these things; it is a 
matter of great moment that we do not confound 
the manifestations of religious excitement with re- 
ligion itself. If we begin to dogmatize about such 
things we talk foolishly; if we are so blind and 
narrow as to demand conformity to our peculiar 
notions, we become irrational and do hurt to God's 
cause, and hinder and mar his gracious work in the 
souls of men. Immeasurable evil has been done by 
zealots in their demand that all others should feel 
just as they do, and manifest feeling just as they do. 

This common sense should teach us: There is no 
more reason for demanding that every revival of 
religion or that every religious experience should 
have the same manifestations than there is in de- 
manding sameness in other things. But, strictly 
speaking, we do not find sameness anywhere in nat- 
ure or mind. 
17 



258 



Quit You Like Men. 



Did God ever make two things alike, so that no 
difference can be detected? There are not two hu- 
man eyes so alike that two other eyes cannot see 
their differences, nor two human faces. Each voice 
has something its own. There are not two blades 
of grass exactly alike, nor two leaves. "As much 
alike as two black-eyed peas," we sometimes say, 
But they are not alike; the eye shows some differ- 
ences; a microscope shows many. Take two very 
small grains of sand and try them with a micro- 
scope; they are as different as two hills or mount- 
ains. And it is so throughout the works of God in 
the world around us. There were never two human 
minds exactly alike. I do not think that there are 
or ever were in the entire universe two things just 
alike. 

Let us take one other illustration — the diversity 
in manifestation of emotions excited by other sub- 
jects that interest and move men. A few years ago 
there was a long contest before the General Assem- 
bly of Georgia for the office of United States Sena- 
tor. The contest lasted through many days of in- 
creasing excitement. Men worked for their favorites 
as if their lives depended on success. When the 
last ballot showed that Mr. Hill was elected, there 
was a scene that rivaled the wildest camp-meeting 
outbreaks that ever excited the jeers of unbelievers. 
Some clapped their hands, some stamped the floor, 
some laughed, some cried, some yelled; one man, it 
is said, threw his hat into the air; two embraced; 
and one, it is affirmed, shouted " Glory!" at the top 
of his voice. But many sat perfectly still, and very 



Quit You Like Men. 



259 



likely they had been the most efficient workers in 
bringing about the result that gave them as much 
pleasure as the noisy men felt. This sort of thing 
depends on the nerves and other such things. 

One of my old friends here is troubled about me; 
indeed, he has kindly taken me in hand. He thinks 
that I am u opposed to shouting." He mistakes 
me. I neither favor nor oppose it. This I mean : 
it is nothing in itself. It becomes important if peo- 
ple make its presence or absence a test or measure 
of a meeting, or of an experience. This also may 
be added: sometimes very good people shout so 
much that they have little strength left to help 
those who are still in bondage; indeed, in the nerv- 
ous collapse that frequently follows a vigorous shout- 
ing experience there is not enough spiritual or other 
force left to help anybody. On this point allow 
some caution to these young disciples: Do not com- 
mit the blunder of trying to realize in your own 
consciousness what you imagine to be the peculiari- 
ties of other people's experience, Do not make 
yourselves so absurd as to ridicule people who ex- 
press their religious emotions by shouting; do not 
commit the intolerant absurdity of doubting the 
religion of persons who make no demonstrations to 
your eyes or ears whatsoever. 

The very notable and wide-spread revival-meet- 
ing, in which we have rejoiced, and in which we 
have been blessed, has its own characteristics. I 
mention some that are obvious to us all. We have 
heard little noise, we have seen many tears. There 
has been little that is called preaching; there has 



260 



Quit You Like Mk 



been a great deal of " giving testimony." The meet- 
ing has had next to nothing of " management;" its 
methods have been simple and unstudied to the 
last degree. There has been absolutely no clap- 
trap, no sensationalism ; there has been earnestness, 
devoutness, thoroughness. The preachers have borne 
only their part in the services; the meeting has been 
open to all, and the praying people have seemed to 
feel heavily " the burden of souls." 

How glad and grateful we are to-day! To many 
of us there was never such a Sunday as this before. 
With many of you this is the first Sunday that ever 
awakened in your hearts the sentiment of sacred- 
ness. Many of you can say to-day, as never before, 
" I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go 
into the house of the Lord." 

I cannot be silent this morning as I think of the 
great blessing that has so lately come upon some of 
you dear to us as life itself. There are two events 
that make fathers and mothers know how much 
they love their children. I have experienced both. 
One is death; the other is conversion. Which 
event wakes the deepest fountain of parental love I 
do not know. In neither case can mere words tell 
what the heart feels. But I know that some of you 
here, and that many in their distant homes who 
have had glad news from their boys at Emory, join 
me this morning, with joy unutterable, in saj 7 ing 
with the psalmist, "Bless the Lord, my soul; and 
all that is within me, bless his holy name! " 

The conversion of our children, or of a friend's 
children, is an occasion of great joy, but it does not 



Quit You Like Men. 



261 



terminate our solicitude for them. Some knowl- 
edge of their dangers makes us anxious. We re- 
joice that the ship is well launched, but we know 
also that the sea is wide, and deep, and stormy. 

Young people are objects of affectionate interest 
because they are young. But religious young peo- 
ple make a double demand upon our sympathy and 
interest. There is so much to hope for in them, 
and the world needs them so much. Upon wed- 
ding - days, and upon other occasions of happy 
worldly fortunes, we are accustomed to offer our 
congratulations to the fortunate ones. This morn- 
ing let me offer congratulations to those of you who 
have begun the new life. 



Just before Paul wrote the Epistle that contains 
our text, there had been a great religious awaken- 
ing in Corinth — one of the proudest, richest, and 
most sinful cities of ancient Greece. The apostle is 
deeply concerned for the stability of the young con- 
verts. He writes them from Philippi the exhorta- 
tion of the text: " Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, 
quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things 
be done with charity." In the same spirit he wrote 
to the young believers among the Galatians : " Stand 
fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath 
made us free, and be not entangled again with 
the yoke of bondage." And to the Philippians 
also: "Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and 
longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the 
Lord, my dearly beloved." 

Let us consider briefly St. Paul's exhortation. 



262 



Quit You Like Men. 



Watch ye. There is constant need, and always 
will be, for temptations will come to you — they will 
come to you as long as you are in this world. But 
there is the greater need for you to watch, seeing 
that the young Christian is not fortified against 
them by habits of faith, of virtue, and obedience. 

Stand fast in the faith. This is the image of a 
soldier enduring a fierce assault and holding his 
ground. What is it they are to stand fast in? The 
faith. This does not mean standing by a form of 
words — merely defending a creed, merely maintain- 
ing orthodoxy. Some men fight very fiercely for 
their orthodoxy when they have lost their religion. 
Nor does the apostle mean to say to these young 
Christians, Maintain a certain mood of feeling. This 
cannot be done; if it were practicable, it is wholly 
undesirable. Constant ecstasy would unfit us for 
the service both of God and man. I said a mood 
of religious feeling cannot be maintained; the rea- 
son is that no mood of feeling can be maintained. 
The constitution of our nervous systems makes this 
impossible. Last week, last night, may be this 
morning, you were, or are, what you call "happy." 
You received what was called a "great blessing." 
You rejoiced in it; very well, but do not try to re- 
call just that feeling for its own sake. Right there, 
on one of those front benches, some years ago I 
heard a young man, who had been a happy Chris- 
tian and had then fallen, into bad ways, make this 
prayer, "0 Lord, make me just as happy as I was 
this time twelve months ago." I whispered to him, 
"You have no business to pray to be made happy; 



Quit You Like Mes^ 



263 



pray God to forgive your backsliding and to make 
you strong." 

I solemnly believe that more backsliding begins 
in the effort to stand fast in a certain mood of feel- 
ing than in any thing else. In the nature of things 
feelings are inconstant; they have their rising and 
their falling tides. As well forbid the ebb-tide its 
movement seaward as to try to maintain a fixed 
emotion. Feeling cannot abide; conviction and 
purpose and practice may. Feeling is only indi- 
rectly within the sphere of our volitions; our pur- 
poses, resolutions, efforts, are completely in that 
sphere. Wherefore we are responsible for our con- 
victions, resolutions, and efforts, and are not called 
to account for our emotions, whether they be de- 
pressed or exultant. Moreover, the state of the 
feelings depends largely on the state of one's health. 
I remember at a class-meeting in my early ministry 
the saintliest woman in a certain Church, who gave 
a lamentable account of her spiritual state. She 
felt badly, and was trying to maintain good feelings 
in her religion; because she could not, she feared 
that she had grieved the Spirit. Every token in 
her case revealed a badly disordered liver; I recom- 
mended a medicine good for such a case, and it 
helped her much. 

Last night some of you were up to a late hour; 
you were singing and rejoicing together. This 
morning you feel dull and sleepy; your emotions 
are sluggish. What does this signify? That you 
were deceived last night? that you have lost the 
blessing of pardon and the new life God gave you? 



264 



Quit You Like Men. 



No; it means only collapse in your nervous system. 
I warn you against the fatal error of testing your 
real religious condition by your feelings. Stand 
fast in the faith, in the truth of the gospel, and in a 
worthy rule and principle of living. 

Play the man. Religion has its gentle virtues, as 
patience, meekness, kindliness, and such like. And 
they are essential. You cannot cultivate them too 
carefully. These gentle virtues are not inconsistent 
with manliness; far otherwise, they support and 
nourish manliness. There are many false and wide- 
spread delusions on this subject. Many young men 
have strangely come to think that a religious man 
is somehow or other not quite manly. Many shrink 
from religion from a half-conscious feeling that in 
becoming religious they surrender part of their 
manliness. There never was a greater delusion and 
misconception. There is nothing worthy of a real 
man, nothing that such a man ought to be or to do, 
that religion does not approve and sustain. You 
may make your analysis as exhaustive as you please. 
There is no true manliness, no quality of character 
or habit of life that will stand all tests, that is not 
in sympathy with religion. 

Please to remember that the phrase, "quit you 
like men " — play the man — has a generic sense. It 
appeals to women as well as to men. True woman- 
liness and true manliness rest on the same founda- 
tions. .... The exhortation means, when you get 
to the bottom of it, Be true to your nature. What 
nature? Your Christian nature. See that your 



Quit You Like Men. 



265 



whole life grows in harmony with this higher law 
of life that you have received. "The law of the 
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made you free 
from the law of sin and death. 5 ' Be true to this 
"law of the Spirit of life" within you, and you will 
"quit you like men." 

A goodly number of you expect to preach the 
gospel. Let me turn aside and say a special word 
to you. There are some unmanly things in some 
preachers that I would affectionately warn you 
against. 

1. An overconscioilsness of the sacrifices you 
make in being preachers. I remember to have 
heard a man talk much on one occasion of the sac- 
rifices he had made in becoming an itinerant preach- 
er. It was cant; the itinerant ministry had taken 
him from the corn-field, and had made what men 
called a gentleman of him. Suppose this ministry 
does involve hardships; so does commerce, so does 
every pursuit in this world that has enough in it to 
employ the best powers of a man. Drummers out- 
travel us, and they do this only for money. Do not 
fear that the world will respect you less if you drop 
all sanctimonious whining about your sacrifices; the 
world is eagle-eyed to see through a sham; it does 
respect a genuine man, whether in the pulpit or at 
the plow-handles. 

2. I warn you, young brethren, against a frequent 
fault of preachers, over sensitiveness. I have heard it 
said that doctors, teachers, and preachers are the 
most sensitive of men ; that their feelings are most 
easily hurt. I fear that preachers are not the least 



266 Quit You Like Men. 



given to this weakness of the three classes named. 
The explanation is not far to seek. Our vocation 
far too much isolates us from the busy world. Christ 
did not, I think, set us this example. We get it 
from the middle ages and from the cloisters. We 
are not used to contradiction; the sermon goes on 
to its end without uttered criticism. When differ- 
ing opinions do strike us they are apt to hurt. This 
sort of sensitiveness may reach such a degree of 
intensity as to arrest all healthful mental develop- 
ment. 

3. Another weakness, perhaps not so common, 
but too common when it exists at all, is a too fixed 
feeling and sentiment of dependence, as if you were 
to be considered as the special object of the world's 
charity. Avoid as you would pestilence the feeling 
of a beggar — the mental habits (to borrow a word 
from the street that fits the case) of a mere " dead- 
beat." Be on your watch against longings for free 
or half-fare tickets on railroads, free meals at hotels, 
"goods under cost," and such like temptations, de- 
lusions, and snares. 

The worst thing about such feelings and the hab- 
its that grow out of them is that it makes you moral 
cowards — the very last thing a preacher ought to be. 
No preacher ever learned such ways from St. Paul; 
we had all of us better go to " tent-making" than 
to be unmanly. (It is not unmanly to receive a 
support from the Church for service rendered; the 
" laborer is Worthy of his hire," but the right to 
the "hire" depends on the labor. And it ought to 
be so.) 



Quit You Like! Men, 



267 



As to all these matters it is, for a young preacher, 
first of all, to be a man. Clear a little space about 
you that you may put your feet firmly clown and 
stand upon them. It will not only help you, it will 
help all to whom you preach. Do not allow the 
world to treat you as a sort of intellectual invalid, 
as a sort of compromise between a man and a wom- 
an. A celebrated wit said there were " three sexes — 
men, women, and clergymen." The satire was jus- 
tified by the lives of many of his own rank — the 
wit was a clergyman. If the world treats you with 
a sort of contemptuous deference, it will be because 
you deserve such treatment. Quit yourselves like 
men," and the world will treat you like men. 

Be strong. Religion does not stop with what we 
call the gentler virtues; its spirit is heroic. Many 
of St. Paul's figures are military, and some of them 
are agonistic. Some of our Lord's words ring in 
our hearts like trumpets in the day of battle. Chris- 
tians need courage as well as meekness, fortitude as 
w^ell as patience, energy as well as submission. In 
its root-idea the exhortation "be strong" means 
action, doing, energy. There is no Christian life, 
however humble and obscure, that does not allow 
all the work — and work too of heroic sort — of which 
that life is capable. 

Let all your things be done in love. A condition of 
Christian living is love. It is a comprehensive 
word. It is love to God and love to man. You 
cannot love aright either God or man unless you 
love both God and man. 



268 



Quit You Like Men. 



Read the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, 
and then live it. 

••••«••*'»• 

Summing it all up, we have a few inferences and 
general conclusions. 

1. Religion is a life rooted in principle, inspired 
of the Holy Ghost, guided in its methods by 
common sense. It is not a series of ecstasies, 
it is a life of service. The value of a locomotive 
is in its power to draw, and not in the circum- 
stance that it can also make a great noise with its 
whistle. 

2. I said it is a life; therefore it belongs to the 
whole of life. Your religion claims all — absolutely 
all of your life. Often I hear you sing, "Every 
hour I need Thee.'' That is true, but not merely 
that you may feel as you wish, but that you be what 
you should be, and do what you should do. Your 
religion must go into life — real, every-day life. It 
belongs to the field, the workshop, the store, the 
business office, the parlor, politics — to every thing 
in which a man has a right to concern himself. So 
also it belongs to the kitchen, the laundry, the nurs- 
ery — to the most fretting and wearing drudgery of 
the poorest as well as of the richest woman's life. 
It concerns us as husbands, as wives, as parents, as 
children, as masters, as servants, as teachers, as pu- 
pils. When I was a boy I heard that apostolic man 
of blessed memory, the late Rev. Dr. Lovick Pierce, 
say in a sermon, "He who is not religious all the 
time and everywhere is not truly religious any time 
or anywhere." And he was right, St. Paul being 



Quit You Like Men. 



269 



judge. St. Paul says, " Whatsoever ye do, do all to 
the glory of God." 

Religion is the most intensely practical spirit that 
ever appeared in the world. 

3. On the basis of St. Paul's doctrine in our text, 
I am authorized to say, You must make by your 
religious life some contribution to the emoluments 
of human life. If the world is not better for your 
having lived in it, your life is a failure. It is igno- 
ble to seek only to save yourselves. 

4. You hear much about consecration, and much 
that is confusing and misleading. STow remember, 
consecration implies not a state of feeling, but a way 
of living. It means service. St. Luke, in the Acts 
of the Apostles, sums up the biography of Jesus in 
a single statement — "who went about doing good." 

5. Finally, for this time: There is no conceivable 
and sensible reason for discouragement or despond- 
ency. You can stand fast, you can quit yourselves 
like men, you can be strong, and you will if you 
really try in any rational and earnest way. This 
good Book makes the way plain enough to all who 
wish to know it. You will need help, and help you 
will have — help of God and help of man — if you really 
desire it. The relation of trustful prayer and of the 
use of all the "means of grace" to this sort of liv- 
ing cannot be pointed out this morning. Some other 
time we can discuss all these matters. 



Back of the exhortation in our text is the doc- 
trine of the resurrection and of the immortality of 
the soul. I conclude with the words with which 



270 



Quit You Like Men. 



St. Paul concludes his great argument in the pre- 
ceding chapter: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, 
be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in 
the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that 
your labor is not in vain in the Lord." 



THE PEACE JESUS GIVES. 



[OXFORD, APRIL 9, 1882.] 



f • Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you ; not as the 
world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, 
neither let it be afraid." John xiv. 27. 



F these words Luther says, " These are the last 



V_y words, as of one who is going away and gives 
his good-night, or blessing." " Peace be unto thee" 
was the friendly farewell and greeting in Israel in 
the ordinary partings and meetings of common life. 
Very often it was conventional and formal only, as 
our "good-by" — God be with you — not seldom 
means only a conventional courtesy. But these 
words of Jesus seem to breathe on weary and troub- 
led spirits a divine rest. There had been, we think, 
a tender pause in these last loving words of our 
Lord. When he speaks again he says: " Peace I 
leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as 
the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your 
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 

There are three things in what He says concern- 
ing peace that lift his words into a higher sphere 
than the ordinary salutations and partings of mere 
friends belong to. First, it is "my peace;" second- 
ly, "I give you peace;" thirdly, "not as the world 
giveth." 




(271) 



272 



The Peace Jesus Gives. 



It is not the world's peace, it is Christ's; and 
Christ's because he gives it. 

1. It was to give peace to a warring and troubled 
world that Jesus came among men. So had all the 
prophets foretold, and the psalmists and holy sing- 
ers. Even heathen sages and poets had dreamed 
and sung of a peace to men that the gods would 
some day send them. The song of the angels over 
star-lit Bethlehem set to heavenly music the hope 
and longing of the world: "And suddenly there 
was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host 
praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the high- 
est, and on earth peace, good-will toward men." 
Among the beatitudes we find these words : " Blessed 
are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the 
children of God." He himself said, "The Son of 
man is come to send peace on the earth." Nor is 
all this contradicted by his sterner speech, "I am 
come not to bring peace, but a sword." 

One little learned in the Scriptures must see the 
harmony of these words. It means only that his 
coming would become, by the wrong use or abuse 
or rejection of his gospel, the occasion of divisions. 
And that the great disturber of the world's peace, 
which is sin, must first be driven out before real 
peace could find a resting-place in the human heart. 
J ust as painful and disagreeable remedies are need- 
ful to restore the sick to health. This necessity of 
driving out sin first of all sometimes brings a sharp 
and agonizing conflict. Satan goes not out willing- 
ly, but must ever be driven out. You remember 
that demoniac boy brought to Jesus. Before leav- 



The Peace Jesus Gives. 



273 



ing him the devil threw him down and tore him 
dreadfully. It is so now — the demon-spirits of pride 
and envy and jealousy and hatred tear the soul from 
which the word of Jesus drives them out. But go 
they must, or there can be no peace. 

Wherefore I say, there is no contradiction when 
He speaks of bringing a sword, and of kindling a 
tire. The sword cuts down and slays the monsters 
that keep the heart in a state of war, and the fire, 
as it burns up the dross, leaves the pure gold reflect- 
ing the beauty of the King's face. 

Wherefore I say again, Jesus came into the world 
to give it peace. You cannot take the words too 
broadly. He came to give peace to the world. 

(1) He came in a special sense to give peace to 
human hearts, which have been the most disturbed 
things in the universe. All lives have in them the 
elements of tragedies, and many lives are tragedies. 
Human hearts, using this word in its wide Bible 
meaning, are dearer to God than all else that he has 
made. In them we find more of his image. Giving 
peace to them is Christ's delight. 

(2) The peace he gives to men's hearts is a peace 
that goes with righteousness and right-living. And 
this means peace to families, that can no more be at 
true peace without Christ than can individual hearts. 
He came also to give peace to communities, and to 
nations, and to the race. And the song of the au- 
gels shall some day become a fulfilled prophecy and 
a realized promise all round the world. Where 
Christ is King there must be peace. 

We do not discuss the blessed doctrine to-day, but 
18 



274 



The Peace Jesus Gives. 



nothing can induce me to give up the inspiring 
hope that cheers the heart of humanity that in some 
golden day to come the " nations shall learn war 
no more." 

I quote another wise word from Luther: "No 
man has peace unless things are with him as they 
should be. Therefore in the Hebrew tongue this 
little word peace means nothing else but thriving 
and prospering." This brings me to speak a mo- 
ment of our need of peace. Till Christ comes and 
reigns, it cannot be said of any man, or house, or 
community ? or nation, "Things are as they should 
be." 

We will never settle the conundrums about the 
origin of evil— the genesis of sin. 

There is a Babel of tongues that wag out their 
answers, such as they are, but for the most part we 
had as well ask the cold and silent Sphinx gazing 
with stony eyes on the barren and dead sands. 
But nothing in the w T orld is plainer, nothing is more 
absolutely certain, than that in this world, and in 
most men, " things are not as they should be." Call 
it by what name you will, refuse to use the old Bible 
name "Sin" if it please your philosophy, but the 
fact remains — whether you give it any name — that 
there actually is a vast deal of wrongness in the 
world, and in us every one. Infinitely more impor- 
tant to us than the question of its origin is the 
question of its end. How it came into the world is 
a very small question compared to this: How can it 
be gotten out of the world? In what way would it 
help us in our conflict to know how sin came into 



The Peace Jesus Gives. 



275 



the world at all ? We know God did not bring it. 
This is one case in which we can prove a negative. 

When our Lord speaks of giving us his peace, he 
means nothing less than a heart, and a house, and 
a community, and a world, from which sin has been 
driven out. It must be so, for sin and peace cannot 
live together, and Jesus knew no sin. If we have 
his peace, we have deliverance from sin. The con- 
verse is true; as sure as there is such a thing as sin 
so sure is it that where there is no peace there is, in 
some form, sin. The Old Testament words are aptly 
chosen : Where "peace flows like a river, righteous- 
ness flows like the waves of the sea." 

My peace! The words are as simple as words can 
be. But how deep and broad is their meaning! As 
once before I told you, in reading the life of Jesus 
the one thing that impresses us most is not his 
matchless wisdom, not his divine power, but his 
purity. Next to this, perhaps, is the impression 
that this Man is at rest in mind, his heart is full of 
peace. And we always connect, in our thoughts, 
his peace with his purity. 

Let us understand then that when Jesus speaks 
to us of peace he is speaking also of purity. 

2. Jesus gives peace. He does not say simply, I 
leave you peace, but I give you peace. 

There never was in this world any other who 
has appeared in human form who could give peace 
to men. For no man can give what he does not 
have as his own. No man has peace whose fount- 
ain is within himself. We must all say, with the 
psalmist, "All my springs are in Thee/' 



276 



The Peace Jesus Gives. 



There is no story so old, so often told, so often 
illustrated, so perfectly understood, as the deep un- 
rest of the human heart when left to its natural 
powers and dispositions. The human heart can no 
more be at peace in itself than the sea can be still. 

But Jesus Christ had perfect peace, and he can 
give it to us all. 

I cannot, this morning, speak of all the divine 
processes with us and the blessed experience within 
us that bring us peace. It is enough now and here 
to say that Jesus gives peace, first of all, by giving 
us the pardon of our sins — peace of conscience. 
Also such a change of heart as means a new nature. 
We need not tangle ourselves with metaphysical 
speculations this morning. It is enough to say, all 
honest-minded people know that men need that 
which alone can come through a sense of pardoned 
sin and the consciousness of the new life begun in 
them. 

Sum it up in a word, it is the office of religion to 
bring the peace that Jesus gives. How well its 
derivation helps us to understand the thing itself! 
It means to rebind. Sin has been a fearful wrench- 
ing and dislocation of our souls from God. It has 
"broken all our bones." Religion rebincls us to 
God. 

Or, to change the illustration: If a star could fly 
its orbit and could be brought back, it would illus- 
trate what sin has done for its victims, and what 
Jesus will do for us. 

Being Christ's peace, it cannot be the world's peace 
that he gives. 



The Peace Jesus Gives. 



277 



What is the world's peace? It is such satisfaction 
as its bestowments can bring. It would not be edi- 
fying, perhaps, to go into a full discussion of its sad 
deficiencies. Where God is left out and his bless- 
ing is lacking* it all comes to grief. Solomon, as I 
showed you in a sermon once, furnishes us illustra- 
tion at this point. His experiment issued in wretch- 
edness: " Yanity of vanities, all is vanity, saith the 
preacher." 

I will point diit some of the notable lacks of the 
sort of peace the world gives. 

1. It is incomplete, arid of necessity. It over- 
looks the spiritual side of man. Its very noblest 
forms do this;— M:he highest philosophy and the most 
exquisite culture. I will deal fairly. It is in the 
power of the hunian will and in the gift of human 
philosophy to attain a sort of calmness in trouble 
that has much the appearance of peace. And it is 
infinitely better than unrestrained feeling, of what- 
ever character it may be. It is wonderful how the 
countenance may be schooled, and how the voice 
may be ruled, so as not to betray distress. This is 
like to real peace as shadow is like to substance. It 
succeeds in calming the surface while the deep of 
the soul is in tumult. Whereas Christ's peace will 
keep the great depths at rest even where the infirm- 
ities, or peculiarities of temperament and of the 
nervous system, under trial, whip the surface into 
agitation. Lieutenant Maury says of the sea in its 
depths that the fiercest storms do not disturb it. 

Whatever overlooks or fails to provide for man's 
spiritual side cannot give him true peace. This is 



278 The Peace Jesus Gives. 



much the same as saying his religious side. Such 
a side he has, as sure as he has any side. The ag- 
nostics— ^know-nothings — are well named; they do 
not know any thing of God, they do not truly know 
themselves* 

2. This peace of the world is not only incomplete, 
it is utterly uncertain. This goes without saying. 
It can need no proof. It is contingent on many 
props. If only one fails, it is broken. And they 
will ail fail some time, and may fail any time. 

But, for the sake of all these young people* who 
will hardly understand all this till they have learned 
by failure, let us consider this matter with some 
care, though briefly. What are some of the ele- 
ments, out of which, compounded in various pro- 
portions, the world makes and gives peace. I 
mention some of them: Health, youth, agreeable 
occupation, bodily comforts, friends. To these are 
added — the rewards of energy and capacity — wealth, 
luxury, splendor, favor> fame, power. I have not 
mentioned the mere animal forms in which the 
world offers its satisfaction. I will not go so low 
down in my argument this morning. As soon seek 
pure air and balmy breezes in the valley of Jehosh- 
aphat, or any charnel-house, as to seek it here. And 
you know this, although in the delirium of passion 
men forget it. Which can you afford to lose, if you 
seek peace on the world's plan? Is it youth, health, 
occupation, comforts, friends? This last least of 
all, but most probably. If you are aspiring to be 
all that you can be, and to do all that you can do, 
which will you give up — fame, reputation, power, 



The Peace Jesus Gives. 279 



wealth? A very few favored ones seem to have all, 
as young Solomon had. But they failed before he 
lost any of them, and there is not one that we may 
not lose. 

This brings me to say that the one supreme need 
of every human soul is that his peace of mind — the 
peace that is his own — should be independent, not 
simply of one but of any mere external conditions, 
of any mere circumstances. If not, the man's fate 
turns on that circumstance. Is it health, or youth, 
or friends ? Whatever it is, when that fails all fails. 

Now, the peace that Jesus gives does supply this 
want — supplies it fully; and it is the only system or 
plan of life that ever did so supply it, or even talked 
of so supplying it. 

For it leaves out nothing in its reckoning, no de- 
crepitude of age, no failure of health, or wealth, or 
favor, or friends, or any thing else. It reckons these 
good things at their true value, and enables a man 
to do without any of them. It brings such an afflu- 
ence of divine resources into the soul as not only 
supplies every lack, but tills every place. More: 
the peace of Christ actually feeds and strengthens 
on the lack of these earthly goods; has done it mill- 
ions of times, and does it to-day in millions of hearts. 
The gospel is the only system that is not scandal- 
ized by suffering. The world has three answers for 
the agonized heart of man: (1) Drown your pain 
in indulgence. (2) Endure it with grim fortitude. 
This is something; I respect the genuine stoic. He 
is, at all events, not a beast. (3) Despair. They 
are now trvinsr this, and for disrnitv's sake call it 



280 The Peace Jesus Gives. 



" pessimism." But the gospel puts a consistent and 
perfect sense into such a phrase as this: " Sanctified 
through affliction," or, "made perfect through suf- 
fering." It wrings pleasure from pain, joy from 
grief, triumph from defeat. When other lights go 
out, it kindles a brighter and diviner light. Nature 
in the saintliest and strongest man that ever lived 
may command her tribute of tears when the heart 
is sick, but the tears become new lenses that give 
fairer visions of God's beauty. Once when preach- 
ing in this house years ago — before I wore glasses — 
and I could not distinguish your faces, a gush of 
tears filled my eyes, and for one instant it transfig- 
ured you all; I saw faces shining and eyes glisten- 
ing in a gentle baptism of holy emotion, and it 
lifted me up. So, if Christ's peace be ours, our 
very sorrows bring us visions of beauty that make 
us glad and victorious. 

With Christ's peace, the soul can do any thing 
that the occasion requires. It can endure, it can 
wait, it can triumph. 

I could give you illustrations almost without 
number. I will mention a few. 

1. A poor girl I saw in Lawrence ville, Georgia, 
one day. There were three sisters, very poor. One 
was the victim of a rheumatism that had anchylosed 
every joint in her body but those that belonged to 
her jaws. She had been there on the bed utterly 
helpless for many years. She suffered always. The 
two sisters cared for her tenderly. During a Dis- 
trict Conference Bishop Pierce and I called to see 
her. The good Bishop read a precious chapter, and 



The Peace Jesus Gives* 281 



we kneeled down to pray. How I loved him when 
his full heart choked his voice till he could not fin- 
ish the prayer ! Christ was with that girl all the 
time. As We Were going, dne of the sisters in 
health said, with faltering voice, " She is the bright- 
est of us all." 

2. One night in Virginia, after one of the terrible 
battles, I heard in the darkness a* low murmuring 
voice. I was with a hospital-camp. Hundreds of 
wounded men were all about us in the woods. Many 
dear friends had been shot dead in battle that day; 
others were dying. It was very dark, the wind 
having blown out our candles. I crept along till I 
found the place where the soldier lay whose voice I 
heard. He was dying. I stooped over him and 
asked him, "How are you getting on? 5 ' "Dying," 
he answered. "Where from?" "Alabama. Wife 
and three children there." "How is it with you?" 
"All right." And he died there in the dark, rejoic- 
ing in Christ the Lord. 

3. There are historic cases that you recall, as 
the Hebrew children in the furnace of fire. The 
beautiful legend is that they sung the forty-sixth 
Psalm as they went into the fire. You recall the 
midnight songs and prayers of Paul and Silas in the 
dungeon at Philippi. You have read how Bunyan 
saw the beauty and heard the songs of the Beulah- 
lands while he lingered in Bedford jail. The lives 
of all God's heroes and heroines furnish illustrations. 

All these help us to understand the closing words 
of our text: "Let not your heart be troubled" — lit- 
erally, let it not be tossed about — "neither let it be 



282 



The Peace Jesus Gives. 



afraid." Occasions enough will come for both 
trouble and fear. Christianity does not propose ex- 
emption to its followers from the ordinary expe- 
riences of humanity.- It could not without destroy- 
ing itself. To have offered health, wealth, power, 
long life absolutely, would have marred all religion 
with a selfishness that would havd made true relig- 
ion impossible. 

Dear yoiitig people, I look at your bright eyes and 
hope-illumined faces sometimes and my heart bleeds 
for you ; for I kndw that clditds will come, and rain, 
and cold; Yott cannot live in thisworld and escape 
trouble, peril, heart-siekness. 

It is spring-time now. Flowers are all about us, 
and the songs of birds till the air. But winter will 
come again. And your time of trial will come. 

But when I think of the peace that Jesus offers 
to every One of you, I am glad for you, and feel that 
it is unspeakably better that ydu have come into the 
world, rough as it is, since his retnedy for all ills is 
so complete. Let not your heart be troubled. 

These last words, " Neither let it be afraid," lift 
us higher than the words of safety and peace. Re- 
ligion is not a mere softness that yieMs to blows; a 
reed that bends before the blast; a patient, suffering 
spirit that can be resigned. It is not sent to soften 
sick-beds only. It is not sent only to wounded and 
bleeding hearts to pour in oil and wine. It is a 
heroic spirit. It teaches courage and exacts it upon 
fit occasion. It can dare as well as endure; it can 
give battle as well as suffer. It can die in its place 
when the hour comes to die. 



The Peace Jesus Gives. 



283 



This high courage and this perfect peace sustain 
and supplement each other. If you want illustra- 
tion$ call the roll of the martyrs and confessors of all 
ages. Modern Madagascar, within the last twenty 
years, has furnished illustrations of the divine cour- 
age of martyrdom as radiant as ever shone forth in 
moral splendor in the Roman arena when, for sport, 
they pitted lions against Christian women. 

There is much talk in the world about consecra- 
tion* Thei*e is no consecration that does not put 
duty above interest^ principle above selfj righteous- 
ness and loyalty to Christ above life. 

I affirm here that the Christ-spirit in men has 
given to the world the finest, fullest illustrations of 
peace and perfect courage. And there will always 
be need of this spirit* There are arenas where in- 
visible lions tear and devour. The courage of the 
truth is needful every day and every hour. 

Finally, take it all together, we see that a good 
man's life is a sort of double life, and to the eye of 
sense full of contradictions. We see sickness and 
health, poverty and riches, weakness and strength, 
defeat and triumph, death and life. It is what Paul 
meant by his paradoxes. 

We may be perplexed, but we are not in despair; 
persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not 
destroyed. 

To use an illustration I have employed heretofore 
in a different connection: Every man who has the 
peace of Christ abiding in his soul is in the sea of 
human life like the Gulf-stream of the Ocean — in it, 
but distinct from it; higher than the surrounding 



284 



The Peace Jesus Gives. 



waves; moving straight on through them, against all 
winds; and warmer, carrying life to frozen lands. 

I can give you no better advice than this: Seek 
till you find it the peace of Christ. I can wish you 
no fortune so good for either world, as this. 

Christ's peace keep you now and always. Amen* 



PROVE ALL THINGS. 



[COMMENCEMENT SEEMON, OXFORD, JUNE 25, 1882,] 



"Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that 
which is good." 1 Thess. v. 20, 21. 

r I iHE meekness that makes true learning possible 



I in the school of truth is very far from blind 
credulity on the one hand, and from the conceit of 
over self-confidence on the other. The really teach- 
able student is one who is willing to be taught by 
the wise; but he is also one who is not afraid to think 
for himself. The monk who has so deeply sunk his 
individuality that he simply receives what his supe- 
rior delivers to him as the final statement of truth, 
and who accepts it without inquiry or hesitation 
because it is the word of his superior, cannot be a 
true learner in any of God's schools. On this point 
so conservative a writer as good Matthew Henry 
has well said : " The doctrines of human infallibility, 
implicit faith, and blind obedience, are not the doc- 
trines of the Bible." These are the doctrines of 
Rome, and in this effort to secure faith and obedi- 
ence by suppressing the human mind, we find the 
origin of the long conflict which free thought and 
inquiring science has waged with what is improper- 
ly called "the Church." 

You will hear and read much of this conflict. If 
we rightly understand the matter, we may safely 




(285) 



286 



Prove All Things, 



settle it in our minds that a holier war was never 
waged. But nothing can be more harmful to us 
than to confoun4 Rome with the "true Church of 
Christ," in speaking of this conflict. " The Church" 
and "Rome" are not synonymous. For the true 
Church is not a sect; the true Church of Christ is 
an invisible, unnamed thing; it is the "kingdom of 
God" among men — a kingdom "that cometh not 
with observation," but a kingdom most real and 
actual, that embraces every human being that ever 
lived, that lives to-day, that shall live to-morrow, 
wdio accepts Christ Jesus, or, not having known 
Christ, yet "walks in the truth," according to the 
best light that God has given him. With this king- 
dom true philosophy, true science, has no conflict; 
it can have no conflict. In other words, true phi- 
losophy and true science have no conflict with 
Christianity. " Science falsely so called" may have 
a conflict with Christianity, just as Christianity 
"falsely so called" may have a conflict with science. 
True science has a conflict — and a most righteous 
conflict it is — with Rome, and with whatever there 
may be in any other form of religion that preserves 
the spirit or imitates the methods of Rome. 

It was Rome, and not Christianity, that sought to 
crush Galileo; that denied facts if they unsettled 
theories; that refused to look through a telescope 
lest something in the creed might be put in jeop- 
ardy ; that shut its eyes to a mathematical demon- 
stration in maintaining the decrees of popes and 
councils concerning matters they did not understand 
and that were not subjects of revelation, It is the 



Prove All Things. 



287 



spirit of Rome, and not the spirit of Christianity, 
that has kindled all the fires of persecution that 
ever lighted the way along which martyrs and con- 
fessors have ascended to God. 

These statements should not occasion surprise. 
For as nothing is more obvious than that traces of 
paganism survive in the social and civil life of our 
Christian civilization, so it is equally plain that 
some errors and misconceptions of Rome survive in 
the opinions, and sentiments, and customs of the 
Protestant Churches. 

The statement holds good without qualification: 
There is not, there never was, any conflict between 
true science and true Christianity. It is only cor- 
rupted Christianity that has withstood science; true 
Christianity is in league with true science, and it is 
true Christianity that has made true science possi- 
ble. For it is "the truth" that "makes free" the 
human mind, and Christianity is the highest form 
of truth ever presented to human thought. 

In illustration let me say, A false or imperfect 
astronomy may be in conflict with Christianity. So 
may a false or imperfect chemistry, or geology, or 
ontology. And the converse is true: A true astron- 
omy, or chemistry, or geology, or ontology, may be 
in conflict with a false or imperfect form of Chris- 
tianity, whether formulated by Romanism or any 
other development in the history of religion. But 
nothing in this world can be plainer, can less need 
argument to prove it to candid and enlightened 
minds, than that God's universe is in harmony with 
itself, and with him, its maker. JSTo two truths can 



288 



Prove All Things. 



contradict or antagonize each other. The conceit 
of John Stuart Mill that there " may be a world in 
which twice two are five" is an unthinkable ab- 
surdity. But it is not more absurd or unthinkable 
than that any truth should contradict any other 
truth; than that any truth, for example, in astron- 
omy or other science should be in conflict with any 
truth in religion. It would be as reasonable to sup- 
pose thai a truth in geometry can be in conflict with 
a truth in chemistry. If in our statement of geo- 
metrical or chemical truth contradictions appear, 
we know at once that we are at fault, either in our 
chemistry or in our geometry. In such a case, a 
wise man will return to his blackboard or his labo- 
ratory; he knows there is an error, and he seeks it 
that he may correct it. The last thing he thinks 
of is to seek to overturn one truth by another. And 
so when any science seems to be in conflict with any 
truth in religion the wise man does not simply sus- 
pect, he knows that there is a mistake somewhere, 
and he will devote his best efforts to the discovery 
and rectification of the error. Any other course is 
destructive, and it is madness; for if we once surren- 
der the doctrine that all truth is in harmony with 
itself, and that therefore no two truths can contra- 
dict each other, we are at the end of intelligent 
thinking; we are at the end of progress; we are at 
the end of all law and order; we are in chaos and 
" thick darkness that may be felt." 

In our text to-day St. Paul gives us, in simple but 
comprehensive terms, the temper and attitude of 
mind which is not only becoming, but that is vitally 



Prove All Things. 



289 



necessary to every true student in every field of in- 
vestigation: "Despise not prophesyings. Prove all 
things; hold fast that which is good." 

I. First of all, we are taught by the apostle to 
hear with respectful and candid consideration what 
"the prophets" say to us. 

I understand very well the special sense of these 
words, that he is speaking to us not of prophesying 
in the sense of foretelling future events, but of proph- 
esying in the more general sense of proclaiming the 
divine will. I know that St. Paul is speaking par- 
ticularly of religious truth, and of what the "proph- 
ets/* the accredited teachers of religion, say to us. 
But it is neither irrelevant nor irreverent to find in 
the apostle's words a just description of the right 
mental attitude toward all who before us have dis- 
covered or proclaimed what they believed to be the 
truth in any province of the kingdom of truth. Xo 
statement of truth by any teacher is to be " despised '' ? 
— treated with contempt, made light of, dismissed 
sneeringly as of little or no worth — only because its 
teachers have lived before our time, or possibly did 
not know some things that we have learned, or 
were seeking truth in some field that we have not 
explored. 

The ancient astrologers made many mistakes, they 
followed many wandering stars of the imagination. 
Moreover, they were what we call "superstitious." 
But you would think less of an astronomer of our 
time, turning his great telescope round the sky and 
discovering new worlds from time to time, who, 
because the worshipful star-gazers of the East were 



290 



Prove All Things. 



mistaken in most of their speculations, should there* 
fore ridicule or denounce them. In every field of 
research the truest learner and the wisest man will 
consider with candor and respect even the miscon-. 
ceptions of sincere seekers who have gone before 
him. Brewster and Faraday may be found, in 
the light of the latest discoveries in chemistry, 
to have been out in some of their statements, 
but such a man as Tyndall will not, for this cause, 
denounce or despise them. He owes them too 
much. 

These statements will illustrate for us the true 
lesson in our text. Every student of religion should 
hear what " the prophets" — the teachers of religion, 
whether they be among the living or the dead— 
have to say to him, with at least as much respect 
and candor as we find in sensible and sincere men 
of science in the attitude they assume toward their 
predecessors. While no authority of a venerated 
name, or of all venerated names, can be received as 
a substitute for evidence, much less as an answer to 
evidence in any search after truth, yet no success in 
discovering truth can justify any son of science in 
" despising" the beliefs of those who have gone be- 
fore him. 

At this place, to come nearer to the special truth 
in the text, I raise this question: In what light are 
we to view the creed-builders, the fathers, the coun- 
cils, the conferences, the prophets, the teachers of 
the Church, who have gone before us? The answer 
is plain and ready to hand: With candid respect and 
perfect fairness we are to hear what they have to 



Prove All Things. 



291 



say to us. No right-minded or pure-hearted man 
"despises prophesyings." 

The current fashion with some of ridiculing "the 
creed/' of sneering at what is called "dogma," is 
not an indication of either piety or sense. It is 
rather an expression of the prevailing tendency of 
our times to revolt against all authority. This 
tendency is, in part, rooted in a good instinct; it is 
the natural rebound of the human soul that finds 
itself now being delivered from the despotism of 
priestcraft, than which no tyranny more cruel ever 
ground its heel into the heart of prostrate human- 
ity. But the tendency of which I speak has in it 
an element of evil. It is largely due to the spirit 
of license — false and bastard liberty — that is abroad 
in the earth; a spirit out of the pit that resents all 
rule, defies all authority, and would overthrow all 
law. It is socialism, communism, nihilism, atheism, 
according to the conditions of its existence and 
manifestations. 

There are those in our time who are instinctively 
disposed to repudiate whatever "the fathers" have 
taught. They jeer at councils, despise "creeds," 
and contemn " orthodoxy." Orthodoxy is the red- 
flag that starts them into frenzies of iconoclastic 
rage. They set themselves forward as reformers, 
and reject what the Church has accepted through- 
out the ages, not because it is proved to be false, 
but because the Church accepts it as orthodox. 
This spirit is vain, conceited, rebellious, wicked, 
destructive. 

For the most part its small claim to the respect 



292 



Prove All Things. 



and confidence of thoughtful and devout men is in- 
dicated by the character of those who make it their 
business to assail whatever is venerable in the insti- 
tutions of the Church; to reject with disdain what- 
ever has received the concurrent approval of the 
best and wisest men. The men of whom I speak, 
and against whom I warn you to-day, are generally, 
when found in ecclesiastical circles, men who have 
failed to achieve their ambitions in the Church ; 
when found in the other camp, men who, with few 
exceptions, are in their spirit and lives out of har- 
mony with Christianity, and who, for this reason, 
find within themselves a motive for assailing all 
that is connected with it. Nothing is more evident 
than that many persons assail Christianity because 
they wish to find a lower standard of life and mor- 
als. Among Church-people there are not wanting 
those who having failed to achieve fame in the ortho- 
dox paths, seek notoriety, its cheap and seductive 
substitute, by attacking what their betters accept 
as the truth. Moreover, they are generally ill-bal- 
anced men, uncertain and cranky in their intellect- 
ual methods and impulses. And not infrequently 
they are men of uncertain personal character. 

In this connection it is w T orthy of remark that 
these despisers of the prophets, these assailants of 
the fathers, these theological insurgents against or- 
thodoxy, are intensified in all their weak and evil 
impulses by the applause of those who neither fear 
Grod nor regard the Church. In illustration of my 
meaning I need only remind you that when some 
pulpit star flies its orbit the Philistine press shouts 



Prove All Things. 



293 



all along the line. When not long since a Chicago 
preacher publicly announced that he no longer be- 
lieved in a personal God, and began to pray to his 
own ideal aspirations, and to harangue his bewil- 
dered hearers upon the progress of the race and the 
enthusiasm of humanity, the " reporters" from the 
uncircumcised press flocked about him and gave, 
with a mighty blare of trumpets, his heresies and 
declamations to the world. Just as these papers 
parade with endless iteration any new discovery or 
supposed-to-be discovery in science or history, that 
by any torture can be imagined to be contradictory 
of the least important statement in the Bible; at 
the same time suppressing with shameless persist- 
ence of unfairness a thousand confirmations of the 
Christian religion. 

Just here we find ample explanation of one of the 
most common and harmful delusions in the public 
mind: the notion that the pulpit is full of men who 
either doubt what they teach for truth, or use their 
opportunity to attack principles they are supported 
to defend, and the equally absurd and mischievous 
notion that nearly all the truths of science do, in 
some way, antagonize the body of Christian doc- 
trine. The paper that spreads before the world the 
atheistic confessions of a fallen pastor may say 
nothing of the steadfast orthodoxy and constant 
usefulness of hundreds of thousands of wiser and 
better men. Popular misconceptions are not to be 
wondered at, when we consider the noise that is 
made over the lapse from the faith of the Church 
of one of her sons who announces that he has just 



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discovered that there is no God after all. One unin- 
formed might infer that a Chinese army is one mill- 
ion strong, if he only reckons by the noise made by 
a thousand gongs. 

There is much need of the exhortation, "Despise 
not prophesyings." It is especially needful in our 
times, and needful above all by young men who 
have educational advantages, whose knowledge has 
not yet ripened into wisdom, who are still in the 
green and sappy stage of life, who have not yet 
" come to themselves," who are too often disposed 
to mistake disrespect for authority for an expression 
of true independence. To young men — to educated 
young men especially — the exhortation is as timely 
as it is necessary. Young men, do not throw away 
your father's creed just because it was his; do not 
reject it because you may not understand it, and 
therefore infer that it must be false ; because it lays 
an arrest upon your passions and ambitions, and you 
infer that it is intolerant. 

The forms of truth that have come down to us 
from the days of old are worthy of your respect. 
They have been sneered at before your time, and 
have survived a logic as forceful and a satire as 
sharp as any that you are likely to bring against 
them. Young men, "Despise not prophesyings" 

St. Paul does not speak half truths to us; more 
dangerous, as has been said to you before, than 
whole heresies. When he says, " Despise not proph- 
esyings," he says also: 

II. "Prove all things" 

The word rendered "prove" w T as often used to 



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express the testing of metals. AecoMitig to some 
of the best expositors, the metaphor suggested by 
the word is derived from the money-changers who 
try, by whatever tests they trust— as ringing, weigh- 
ing, and such like— all coins that are offered to them, 
and then reject the bad and keep the good. 

In every age counterfeits have folldwed after gen- 
uine coins. There must be tests for distinguishing 
them, whether in matters of business or of faith. 

St. John enjoins upon us the duty of testing 
" prophesyings." He says, " Beloved, believe not 
every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of 
God/' The urgent necessity for thi& testing of the 
spirits he sets forth in these words: a Because many 
false spirits are gone out into the world." Before 
St. John, our Lord pointed out the necessity, laid 
down the principle, and gave us a rule for testing 
both the prophets and their doctrine: "Beware 
of false prophets. .... Ye shall know them by 
their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or 
figs of thistles?" The right and duty of personal 
investigation and personal judgment in matters of 
faith are implied in his exhortation, " Search the 
Scriptures." And the writer of the Acts of the 
Apostles eulogizes the men of Berea as " more no- 
ble " than others because they did search the Script- 
ures in order to determine for themselves whether 
what the apostles had told them was the truth. 

In this right and duty of "private judgment" 
Protestantism is based. This is its declaration of 
independence; in the exercise of this right it had 
its origin; in the continued exercise of it rests its 



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safety and its life. Protestantism sets itself against 
two despotic claims of Rome: 

1. That what the Church says concerning mat- 
ters of faith is a finished and complete statement 
of truth, and therefore a sacred thing to be received 
as upon divine authority on the peril of the soul by 
every generation. 

2. That in the interpretation of the word of God 
the Church is infallible. 

Granting these claims, it is logical and necessary 
to believe: (1) That what the Church has said at 
any time in the past is a final and absolute state- 
ment, and must be received as such forever. (2) 
That what the Church may say at any future time 
must be received as absolute truth. (3) That to 
reject what the Church says is a mortal sin. (4) 
That the Church is lord of every man's thoughts, 
and conscience, and life : that its official voice is the 
voice of God. A statement near of kin to the cry 
of the demagogue, " The voice of the people is the 
voice of God.' 7 Within limits, both formulas are 
true; without limit, their doctrine is despotism. 

Against this crushing spiritual bondage our text 
makes its everlasting protest in an exhortation that 
has the force of law, and that is addressed to the 
mind and conscience of each disciple in the school 
of Christ: " Despise not propkesyings," but "prove 
all things. " 

The utility of written creeds and formularies- 
statements embodying the main points of Christian 
doctrine — is not questioned by wise and careful 
thinkers. But whenever we think of our creeds as 



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being in their form sacred things, we think of them 
superstitiously, and they become harmful to living 
faith. It is then that we are in position to lose the 
spirit in the letter, and to " make void" both " law" 
and gospel "through the tradition of the elders." 
What we call the "Articles of Religion " are at best 
only the clearest expression of human judgment as 
to the essential truth of God's word of which wise 
and good men are capable. It is not every one w T ho 
realizes that his " Confession of Faith" is not in- 
spired. The truth is God's, and therefore sacred; 
the formulation of it is man's, and therefore a prop- 
er subject of investigation, criticism, and revision. 
It was the highest duty of Israel to keep the com- 
mandments written upon the two tables of stone by 
the finger of God; it would have been base idolatry 
to have worshiped the ark that contained them — 
that was the work of men's hands. The ark was 
wood, and passed away; the law was truth, and 
abides forever. 

At best all confessions of faith are but imperfect 
expressions of truth; imperfect because they take 
their form in the minds of fallible men, who cannot 
know all the truth, and who confessedly make mis- 
takes. I have known godly men lift up their hands 
in horror at a proposition to change certain forms 
of expression in the ritual of baptism, as if change 
were itself akin to blasphemy. This is a relic of 
Romanism. The principle in our text would ask, 
Is the proposition for change in itself wise? is the 
proposed form a more perfect expression of the 
truth? 



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Why should it surprise us that religious truth 
takes on new forms of expression age after age? In 
no sphere of truth can one generation either dis- 
cover all its treasures or give perfect expression to all 
that it knows. It was never yet ti^ue, it never will 
be true, that the men of one generation, although 
they composed the first councils of the Church, 
could do all the thinking for all that come after 
them. The natural world is new to each generation 
of investigators, and each generation, if it study the 
world, w r ill find new things to describe and define. 
No true poet describes nature in the very words of 
his predecessors; no true scientist is contented to 
simply catalogue the opinions and discoveries of 
those who have gone before him. What is true of 
the works is true of the word of God— " The king- 
doms are but one." 

The Bible is essentially a new book to each gen- 
eration and to each man. Our studies no more 
exhaust the words than they exhaust the works of 
God. To the end of time there will be new state- 
ments of scientific truth; and always, so long as 
men think at all, there will be new formulations of 
religious truth. New discoveries in the powers and 
resources of nature do not imply new creations, nor 
do new expressions of religious truth imply new 
revelations. No doubt there is a Providence, all- 
wise and gracious, in men's thoughts as in their 
deeds. As God's providence timed the great dis- 
coveries and inventions of our time, so, I cannot 
doubt, the enlightening and sanctifying Spirit that 
gives " man understanding," and that " enlightens 



Prove All Things 



2P9 



every man that is come into the world/' brings to 
the " remembrance "of each generation those forms 
of truth that are most needed for the work of God. 
Till we have passed into the heavens, we will only 
know in part; we will be looking through a glass 
darkly. Then, but not now, shall we know even as 
also we are known. 

If truth could be furnished to us just as the gov- 
ernment issues coin, with its image and superscrip- 
tion; if perfect and final expression could be given 
to truth by the " prophets," it would not accomplish 
the divine purpose in giving truth to the world. 
For we are so constituted that much of the blessing 
that the truth brings to us can come only in our 
search after it. In relation to the pearl of truth we 
are more than receivers; we are also finders. It 
was only when the man in the parable had found, 
after diligent search, the pearl of price, and had 
sold all he had to be possessed of it, that he could 
claim it as his own. 

It is beyond question a fact in our mental consti- 
tution that we cannot thoroughly know any thing 
that we do not in some way formulate for ourselves. 
It is on this principle that some writer, unknown to 
me, asserted some years ago in Blackwood's Maga- 
zine that "we do not thoroughly know any thing 
till we have spoken or written it." For it is in our 
effort to formulate truth for ourselves that we stamp 
our own die upon it and it is ours, as no truth can 
be that we only receive from another; or, to employ 
a most familiar bat forcible illustration : Our knowl- 
edge, like our food, must be digested and assimilated 



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before it oecomes part of our very blood and fiber 
and muscle. 

The catechism is good after its kind, but mere 
catechism knowledge is apt to stop in the verbal 
memory; it is not generally so digested and assim- 
ilated as to become a constituent part of our vital 
and vitalizing faiths. To illustrate this thought by 
the simplest possible case: Suppose you tell your lit- 
tle boy that Samson was the strongest man, or that 
Job was the most patient of all sufferers. He knows 
what you tell him in a sense; you have told him so, 
and he believes you. But there is no vividness of 
impression. Let the boy now read for himself the 
story of the giant's prowess, or even look at a pict- 
ure of his mighty deeds. Let him read how he 
slew the lion that rose up against him; how he bore 
away the massive gates of Gaza; how he slew the 
Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass; how he 
pulled down upon himself and his tormentors the 
temple of Dagon. The story kindles his imagina- 
tion. His blood quickens, and his little muscles 
swell as the story comes into his consciousness, a 
reality, a living fact, that he sees and knows for 
himself. 

Or, let him read for himself the wondrous story 
of the man of Uz, who lost all things and suffered 
all things, yet sinned not with his lips nor charged 
God foolishly; let the boy hear him say from his 
ash-heap, " The Lord gave and the Lord hath tak- 
en away, blessed be the name of the Lord." It all 
comes home to him with its infinite pathos, and the 
child who has known neither suffering nor want 



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301 



can almost understand the victorious outburst of 
faith, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." 

But mere catechism questions and answers can- 
not give such knowledge. The principle applies 
universally; we must find truth for ourselves to 
make it, in its best sense, truth to us. And w r e can- 
not make it our truth without searching for it our- 
selves. This is not peculiar to religious truth; no 
truth can be conveyed simply by teaching; there 
must be learning also. Take the simplest proposi- 
tion in geometry: the learner must see for himself 
the relations' of two straight lines crossing each 
other before he can understand what you mean by 
right-angles. 

If it were possible for the Church, through proph- 
.ets, or popes, or fathers, or councils, to do all the 
thinking that needs to be done so far as reaching a 
perfect expression of the truth is concerned (and 
how impossible this is the history of theology makes 
plain), the necessity of "proving all things,", of 
"trying the spirits," of "searching the Scriptures," 
would still exist. For the necessity of individual 
judgment is based in the very constitution of our 
minds. Only thus can truth be truth to us; and it 
is only when the truth is realized as truth in our 
inmost heart that it " makes us free." Just as the 
light of the sun is not light to us till it enters our 
eyes. It is not enough that other men have the 
light and tell us w T hat they see. The most eloquent 
description of colors, of lights and shadows, cannot 
make its sweet wonders known ; it is only when we 
see with our own eyes that we say, " Truly the light 



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is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to 
behold the sun." 

The right and duty of personal study and judg- 
ment imply that there are tests by which we may 
try the prophesyings — may "prove all things," that 
we may " hold fast that which is good." As already 
intimated, the word rendered "prove" implies the 
test of coins. The merchant uses his tests; he tries 
the weight, the ring of the coin that is offered to 
him. He knows the genuine coin, and tests that 
which is under consideration by his knowledge of 
the true. 

Where now is our criterion? By what shall we 
test the word of the prophets? We are as fallible 
as they. The right to judge them implies their lia- 
bility to error. As this liability inheres in their 
finite humanity, so we, being men, are also liable to 
err in our judgment of them. We cannot, then, as 
judges of the prophets, find in ourselves any abso- 
lute standard of truth. We have need to remember 
with humility that human fallibility shows itself 
in the criticism as well as in the formulation of a 
creed, or an interpretation. But it would be ab- 
surd to conclude that our judgment is useless 
because it is not infallible. It would be equally 
wise to bandage or put out our eyes because they 
sometimes deceive us as to colors or distances. 
In seeing and judging we are to do the best we 
can. 

We find the test of coins in certain definitely as- 
certained facts of metallurgy. So, in our religious 
beliefs there are tests, not so easily applied nor so 



Pkove All Things. 



803 



definite in their results as are the tests of gold and 
silver, but nevertheless satisfactory for all the uses 
that belong to the nature of the subject. There 
are two tests of the truth of doctrine that will an- 
swer all our need in sqch cases. And it is a most 
important and comforting fact that it is easier to 
make these tests in doctrines of vital importance. 
Thus it is easier to determine whether a prophet 
preaches the truth in relation to repentance and 
pardon, and the new birth, than when he under- 
takes to formulate in precise definition the ontolog- 
ical relations of the Trinity. In a word, the more 
practical and important in its relations to our per- 
sonal Mth and salvation any truth is, the easier is 
it for us to test the " prophesyings " that are urged 
upon our attention. 

One of these readily applied tests, and that most 
prominent in the apostle's mind, we find in the 
Scriptures themselves: " Search the Scriptures," 
says our Lord, " for they are they which testify of 
me." If the prophets do not speak according to 
this word, we must reject their message. Since it 
is inevitable that men differ in their interpretation 
of the word, the question occurs, How shall we be 
certain in such cases? The answer is, We cannot 
be certain in such cases. We must do the best we 
can to reach honest conclusions; God requires no 
more, man can achieve no more. As to the rest, 
"the day will declare it," and this is not the only 
world in which we can study the mind of God. In 
the white light of eternity we will " know even as 
also we are known." Till then, diligence in study, 



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patience in failure, gratitude in success, toleration 
in our differences, become . us all. 

Our Lord gives us another test that we may use 
in safety, even when there is little of the learning 
of books. He says, in speaking .of false prophets, 
so certain to come, " By their fruits ye shall know 
them." Prophesyings that make men worse are 
false. In applying this test, we shall have to do 
with ourselves more than with others. Prophesy- 
ings that neither teach us nor strengthen us, that 
do not help us to conquer our sins, that do not bring 
us nearer to God or make us more like Jesus our 
Lord, however learned or eloquent they may be, are 
not good to us. We have proved them; we find 
them wanting; we may let them go. But let it 
teach us modesty to remember that we are not in- 
fallible in deciding what are the influences — the 
fruits — of any given doctrine. We may be mis- 
taken here also. But candor in our investigations 
and perfect charity toward other searchers after the 
truth will save us, for the most part, from disagree- 
able and harmful conflicts of opinion. 

But if one says, " Since I cannot determine relig- 
ious truth as I measure distances or weigh bodies, 
I accept agnosticism and declare myself to be a 
know-nothing in religion," it is the doctrine of a 
fool. 

How are we to make proof? What method must 
we use in our search after religious truth? 
I answer: 

1. We are to use our minds. Religion is a proper 
subject for thought. There is nothing abnormal in 



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305 



the relations between religious truth and the human 
mind. As to the mental process, we think when 
we study religion as we think w T hen we study other 
subjects. The study of religion involves no vio- 
lence to our reason. Its truths may be beyond rea- 
son, but we will not help our understanding of them 
by refusing to use our reason. 

2. In our search for religious truth we will not 
forget the works of God, but the Bible, the word 
of God, is our text-book. The Bible, if we would 
understand it, needs to be studied, so far as our in- 
tellectual methods are concerned, just as we would 
study any other book. It is a sin and a folly to 
make a mere fetich of the Bible. We are not to 
read the Bible as an end but as a means. One can- 
not become learned in Bible truth by simply read- 
ing over so many chapters, $s a sort of penance or 
as the price of security and a pacified conscience, 
before going to sleep. We are to study the Bible as 
we would stud} 7 our geometry, not simply read. 
" Search" signifies our best effort to get at the very 
marrow of its teaching. We are to search not be- 
cause it is the Bible, but because it tells us of Christ, 
the way of salvation. There is no more virtue in 
simply reading the Bible than in reading Black- 
stone; all the good of Bible study comes in Bible 
learning. 

3. In searching the Scriptures we should pray for 
the help of the Holy Spirit that we may be led into 
the truth. We have the promise of our Lord, made 
the night before he died for us, that the Father 
would send the " Spirit of truth " to help us find 

20 



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the truth. This promise he makes again and again. 
"I will pray the Father, and he shall give you an- 
other Comforter, that he may abide with you for- 
ever; even the Spirit of truth." Again he says, 
" But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, 
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall 
teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." 
Again: " But when the Comforter is come, whom I 
will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit 
of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he 
shall testify of me." 

iSo doubt we have God's blessing in honest search- 
ing after every form of truth, for all truth is his. 
But it cannot be questioned that in the words I 
have quoted, as well as in other such words of Jesus, 
we Lave a very special promise of divine help in 
our search after the truth of his word; after the 
real essence and meaning of the gospel. 

It is a very narrow and mistaken exposition that 
would limit these blessed promises of Jesus to the 
apostles or to the Church of that day. The mirac- 
ulous bestowments of the Holy Spirit were for that 
day only. But those gifts of the Spirit which are 
most valuable — his enlightening, quickening, and 
sanctifying influences — abide with the Church for- 
ever. These last promises are for us of the present 
time. On the strength of them, Jesus urges us to 
pray for the help we need. In one place he makes 
a special promise of the Spirit's help. " If ye then, 
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
children, how much more will your Father which is 



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307 



in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
him?" 

In these last words of our Lord there is no prom- 
ise to us of inspiration, but of help that we may 
understand what God has already given the Church 
through his Son and the apostles. 

Let us distinctly remember that these promises 
of the Spirit's help in our search for truth is coup- 
led with exhortations to pray for it. Prayer is in- 
stinctive with devout searchers after the truth. It 
is as natural to ask God's help when we are seeking 
God's truth as for little children to look to their 
mothers for tender care. Prayer is instinctive and 
easily understood till we undertake to construct a 
philosophy of it. When we are seeking to know 
the truth, prayer follows naturally and certainly; it 
is the turning of the spirit's eye to the source of 
all light, " the Father of our spirits." 

The prayerless man is not in the right attitude to 
find the truth. Religious history is full of proofs 
and illustration of the truth that our best views of 
God and of men, and of our duty to God and men, 
come to us in the hour of prayer. It is not inci- 
dental, it is a law of the Spirit's operation, that his 
help comes in answer to prayer. It is to the 
praying soul that the light of the shekinah still 
shines between the cherubim. Prayer and the 
Spirit's help and earnest search after the truth are 
so intimately and vitally connected that we may 
settle it in our minds as certain beyond all doubt 
that when we cease to pray we cease to discover 
truth in its noblest forms; that we are proceeding 



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without our Guide; that we are groping along a 
toilsome and uncertain way in the light of the fitful 
sparks we may strike from the stones under our 
feet, whose flash only bewilders and then leaves us 
to denser darkness. 

It is not simply that it does not please God to 
grant the Spirit's guidance and help to prayerless 
souls, but that he cannot in the higher offices of the 
Holy Ghost, for the prayerless heart shuts him out. 
The Holy Spirit may convince such a heart of sin, 
but he cannot " sanctify it by the truth," and by 
the truth make it free. 

4. In seeking still further to know how we are to 
"prove all things" that the prophets say to us, I 
mention to you one of the most interesting and 
comforting truths taught in the Bible or realized in 
experience: The desire to know the truth is the vital 
condition of knowing it. This is the universal law; 
but it has its peculiar force and prevalency in our 
study of the gospel of Jesus. The desire to know 
the truth and only the truth is the best security for 
finding the truth in any field of inquiry. But it is 
perfect security, so far as essential saving truth is 
concerned; so far as rights and wrongs and ques- 
tions of duty are concerned, in the field of religious 
investigation. All this is comprehended in the 
words of our Lord, " If any man will do (that is, 
wills to do) his will, he shall know of the doctrine." 

I am not speaking of speculative " prophesyings " 
on matters unsettled by divine revelation; these are 
matters of opinion. I speak of things essential — the 
vital, saving truths of the gospel, and of questions 



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309 



of duty, of right and wrong. Here we can "prove 
all things." "If the eye be single, the whole body 
shall be full of light." Nothing clears the mental 
vision like a fixed and absolute purpose to do the 
will of God — like a sincere desire to know just the 
truth of his word. 

5. This brings me to say that, in the fullest and 
highest sense, religious truth is only known in con- 
sciousness through experience. This principle is very 
broad, but it has its peculiar force in the sphere of 
religion. Not long since an eminent composer was 
looking over some anthem-music that he had just 
received. He did not sing, but his soul thrilled un- 
der the music that had no voice. He said to me, " I 
hear them." One who knows nothing of music 
would not understand him. These things being 
musical are musically discerned. It was the music 
in him that put tongues in every note upon the 
page. Beethoven composed grand and perfect har- 
monies after he was so deaf that he could not hear 
the orchestra. 

It should not be counted a strange thing that we 
should say of many of the higher truths of religion, 
" These things are spiritually discerned." As relig- 
ious truth has its empire preeminently in man's 
heart, as these truths enter into consciousness, it is 
more peculiarly true of religious than of any other 
forms of truth, they are known through experience. 

Our Lord and his apostles recognized this princi- 
ple. So does common sense. Take one case out 
of many for illustration. The gospel promises 
"peace" in some special sense. What does this 



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mean? Is the promise good? Is the word true? 
This is not settled by exegesis or philosophy; it is 
settled by experience. Who can explain it to one 
who has no experience? The principle is not pecul- 
iar to religion. Who can understand what love is? 
who can tell another what it is where there is. no 
experience of the grand passion? We can only 
know by experience, and we can know perfectly by 
experience. 

This age demands the test of experiment. The 
gospel responds to the demand. There were never 
any doctrines or theories offered to men that so 
completely subjected themselves to experiment as 
those truths of the gospel that concern our relations 
to men and to God. 

III. "Holdfast that which is good" 

The doctrine is, having " proved " what is " good," 
hold it fast. Only those who have not "proved" 
the truth for themselves are "tossed about with 
every wind of doctrine." Fickleness of opinion is 
a great weakness; the best guard against it is can- 
did and thorough investigation. But immutability 
is no more a human prerogative than infallibility is 
a human attribute. Immutability is God's prerog- 
ative because his infinite perfections make him in- 
fallible. In him is no variableness nor shadow of 
turning, because in him is no possibility of error. 

Holding fast the good is a high duty. But this 
true firmness, this true consistency in holding fast 
to our convictions of truth and duty, is infinitely 
removed from the weakness that clings to an opin- 
ion because it was entertained yesterday, and from 



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311 



the obstinacy of prejudice. If you are never to 
modify your opinions, then you will never learn 
more than you know to-day. You will, young 
men, if you use your minds, come to the time that 
you will find it needful to rethink the grounds of 
your beliefs. Do not be afraid to do this when you 
feel the need; honest reinvestigation will do you no 
hurt. What is true will be confirmed; what is false 
you should wish to reject. What you can retain in 
the years to come only because you once believed it, 
is not worth retaining. Error is not made sacred 
by being long entertained. A man who is a man 
will not stand by an opinion in the face of facts 
from considerations of prejudice. This is not 
strength, it is despicable weakness. No slavery is 
more degrading than the bondage of prejudice. 
True consistency — a genuine holding fast that 
which is good — demands that you surrender what 
new and brighter light shows to be false. This is 
no more fickleness than the winding course of a 
streamlet swelling into a river as it seeks the sea is 
fickleness. Its true persistence is seen in its onward 
though tortuous course. So, in the course of hu- 
man life, changes of opinion that " make for right- 
eousness" are to be welcomed. It is only by mak- 
ing changes that the truth requires that we can hold 
fast that which is good. If one moving down a 
stream in a boat should refuse to follow the turn of 
the stream, he may be stranded in shallows or tossed 
upon rocks, but he will never reach the sea. 

Seeking the truth in the best light that God gives 
you, " hold fast the good.' ? The truth alone is worth 



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struggling, suffering, and dying for. The word here 
is to kalon — the fair, the noble, the beautiful. And 
St. Paul, I suppose, uses this word because only 
that is fair and noble, and worth loving and hold- 
ing fast, which, being true and good, is therefore 
beautiful and worth loving with all the heart. 

Young men, I give you no further charge at this 
time. Many times we have exhorted you to follow 
Christ; nearly all of you do. Follow close to him; 
walk in his footsteps; then you are safe for both 
worlds. 

u Despise not prophesyings" — give respectful, 
modest, and candid attention to what the prophets 
tell you. " Prove all things," for yourselves. " Hold 
fast that which is good/' throwing off, with increase 
of years and wisdom,, all that is false, and holding 
fast forever to all that is true. "And the very 
God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God 
your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved 
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." 



BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS. 

[COMMENCEMENT DAT, EMORY COLLEGE, OXFORD, JUNE 
28, 1882,] 



YOUNG men of the Class of 1882, I part with 
you with regret and with pleasure. With re- 
gret, because as a class you have been orderly, duti- 
ful, and studious beyond the average. You held up 
to the routine of college work to the last. You have 
given us singularly little trouble; I do not recall a 
single disagreeable passage with one of your num- 
ber. We shall miss you next term, and we cannot 
forget you. Happy will we be if your successors do 
as well as you have done. We part with you with 
pleasure, because we expect you to do well. You 
have good training for the work that awaits you, 
and you are well furnished for the beginning of 
your life among men. And all we claim to do is to 
help you to get ready to begin. Every verb you 
have conjugated, every noun you have declined, 
every problem you have solved — in a word, every 
lesson you have learned, every form of drill and 
discipline that you have undergone, whether in col- 
lege recitations or society debates, only makes you 
the stronger and readier for the real work upon 
which you enter after to-day. Ignorant men talk 
most absurdly of what they call " practical educa- 
tion," as if training a boy to be a man were not the 

(313) 



314 Baccalaureate Address. 



most practical and useful thing in the world. In 
so far as you have used your opportunity— and most 
of you have used it well— we have not given you 
trades and professions, hut we have prepared you to 
do and to be any thing in this world that you are 
capable of doing and being. Some may think I am 
boasting to-day. Be it so; yet I say to you, with 
good conscience, for myself arid my colleagues, If 
you fail it will not be our fault. We have stead- 
fast^ done our duty by you, and you have deserved 
the best that any could do. 

We do not expect you to fail. I could give many 
reasons for this confidence in your future. Some I 
will mention; in some points you may not agree 
with me. If you do not, I am inclined to believe 
that in a few years you will reconsider your opin- 
ion. The first ground I mention of my confidence 
in your success is this: there is riot a genius among 
you; and what is better^ there is not, unless I am 
greatly mistaken, among you a man who thinks 
himself a genius. If any of you entertain this opin- 
ion, make haste, I beg you, to lay it by with other 
faded things — as the bouquets of your sophomore 
triumphs. 

But many of you have what is better than genius 
— the spirit of hard, plodding, patient, all-conquer- 
ing work. In this spirit is " the promise and po- 
tency " of any achievement Providence calls you 
to attempt. It is hard work that wins — building 
pyramids, tunneling mountains, making deserts 
bloom, kindling great lights in the dark places of 
the earth, fighting the battles of truth and right- 



Baccalaureate Address. 



315 



eousness, lifting the world higher, and saving your 
own souls. 

Another reason I mention for my hope of you 
and confidence in you: most of you are what the 
w T orld calls poor. For this I thank God. I hope 
there is not a man of you whose father has money 
enough for him to live without work. If there is 
one, I tremble for him ; if there be one, I expect him 
to fail. Except vice, there is hardly any thing in 
this world that so emasculates energy as gold. It 
is to be feared that you do not sufficiently appreci- 
ate the blessing of poverty. 

It was a rough but true kindness that led Thur- 
low to refuse a lucrative office to the young lawyer 
who became Lord Eldon, although he had prom- 
ised it to him. Eldon said of this early disappoint- 
ment: "What he meant was that he had learned 
that I was by nature very indolent, and it was only 
want that could make me very industrious." Had 
he received the coveted office, he might have lived 
and died an office-holder; he would not have been 
Lord Eldon. 

How nobly some of you have already learned the 
uses of adversity; how bravely you have fought 
your way through college, eking out your small 
means, denying yourselves, and patiently practicing 
economy; how splendidly you have won in this con- 
flict with a poverty that does not cause you a blush 
to-day, and that in the years to come will be an in- 
spiration to others, in like case, who will come after 
you. All this some of us know. Wherefore we 
rejoice with you to-day. And I rejoice, too, that 



316 



Baccalaureate Address. 



in this town where you have lived, and in this, col- 
lege where you have studied, money has never com- 
manded recognition where merit did not deserve it. 

Let me ask you this last time I will ever see you 
all together, What are you going to do ? Some- 
thing, I am sure. Most of you must; all of you 
should. No achievements by your ancestors can 
buy for you exemption from the duty of work. It 
is a shame to a man to live upon the accumulations 
of others, without purpose or effort to do something 
himself. It is a shame for any human being to be 
contented with a life of idleness; it is a shame be- 
yond words when an educated man does nothing to 
deserve to live in this working world. Thoreau 
puts the case well: " Be not simply good — be good 
for something/' If you are to be good for any 
thing, you must do something; with small qualifi- 
cation, we may say with Matthews, " What a man 
does is the real test of what he is." 

It was suggested to me by a wise friend that I 
should speak to you to-day on a choice of a profes- 
sion. Meditating upon the matter, I find the sub- 
ject so large and complicated that the occasion will 
not give me time for its proper discussion. Some 
general remarks are all that I can indulge at this 
time. 

For one thing I am glad to know that you do not 
propose to divide yourselves absolutely among what 
are known as the learned professions. Some of you 
are good debaters who do not propose to be lawyers; 
some of you can feel a pulse who do not propose to 
be doctors; and some of you feel divinely moved to 



Baccalaureate Address. 317 



do good in the world who do not feel called to preach. 
I am told that some of you will preach, some teach, 
some practice law, some medicine. This is well 
enough ; there is room for you — there is always much 
•room in these professions — at the top. But these lines 
do not suffice for you all. Some look to journalism; 
some to civil engineering; some to farming; some 
to merchandise. There may be other fields that 
you are contemplating. One thing is sure — there 
is a place for you if you are only fit for it ; or there 
will be when you become fit. There is a great cry 
from the army of the unemployed that they can find 
nothing to do; this cry is answered by the great 
world, "We cannot find men to do what sorely 
needs to be done — what we are willing to pay for." 

Young men, I would ring it into your ears to- 
day, It is easier to find one hundred young men in 
Georgia who want a "first-class position" than it 
is to find one thoroughly fitted to fill such a place. 
I beg you to consider the significance of this state- 
ment; it is the simple truth without a trace of ex- 
aggeration. Circumstances have given me oppor- 
tunity to take an inside view of this matter, and I 
tell you plainly, we are poor in men and women 
who are fitted to do the first-class work of either 
the Church or the State. Hundreds can do com- 
monplace work; many can do average work; few, 
very few, can do the higher work that the times re- 
quire to be done. If you doubt what I tell you, ask 
those who are called on to fill the higher places when 
a vacancy occurs. I make no exceptions; my state- 
ment applies to the pulpit — ask your bishops and 



818 



Baccalaureate Address. 



your congregations; to schools and colleges — ask 
your trustees ; to journalism — ask the publishers of 
the great newspapers; to the mechanic arts — ask 
your builders and contractors. I may be blamed 
and contradicted for what I am about to say; be it 
so. I am used to it; and it were better for a man 
to say what maybe false in fact, when he is honestly 
mistaken, than to say what he believes to be false. 
It is better to be right than to be thought right. 
What I wish to say to you, and to the undergrad- 
uates of the college, and to the young men and 
women of my section, as far as my voice can reach 
them, is this: We of the South are poorest where 
we least suspect poverty — in men and women thor- 
oughly qualified to do the work that our time and 
our duty and our opportunity demand at our hands. 

Look where you will, and the facts — and remem- 
ber that no amount of complacent, patriotic elo- 
quence can put away facts — justify my statement. 
Take illustrations that are right about us. There 
are more houses to be built than there are among us 
and of our own people men who are qualified to build 
them properly. First-class carpenters, brick-ma- 
sons, painters, blacksmiths, first-class artisans in all 
departments of the mechanic arts, are very scarce 
among us ; they are humiliatingly scarce, if we look 
for men born and reared among us. The country 
is filled with men who are jacks-at-all-trades and 
masters of none. Not one-fourth of the carpenters 
among us can do joint-work ; not one-fourth of the 
blacksmiths can shoe your horse without the risk 
of laming him; not one-fourth of the brick-masons 



Baccalaureate Address, 319 



can build a straight wall; not one-fourth of our 
painters can touch a washboard with a brush with- 
out smearing the plastering. If these statements be 
denied, it is in order to prove honesty where com- 
petency is affirmed, and bad work cannot be de- 
nied. For no man who is familiar with the mat- 
ters I am discussing, and has been far enough from 
home to find some basis of comparison, will deny 
that the South is filled, in city, town, and country- 
places, with all sorts and degrees of shoddy work. I 
except no class of men from this statement. As to the 
men who adhere to the John Jasper astronomy, and 
stand to it " that the sun do move/' what do tel- 
escopes and the mathematics signify to them? 

I have taken certain cases, easily understood by 
us all; especially as most of us who have tried to 
have any sort of work properly done are sufferers. 
But the statement holds terribly true in other than 
the mechanic arts.. 

" Nothing to do," indeed ! It is not true. There 
are hundreds of things to do — things useful, profit- 
able, and honorable — if men with souls in their bod- 
ies will only lay to and do them; do them earnestly, 
faithfully, competently. Young men, and young 
women too, opportunities are many; they crowd 
upon you; they urge you vehemently; they offer 
you great rewards ; they have gold and laurel crowns 
for the worthy who dare to embrace them and are 
worthy to be crowned. Alas that so many should 
long for successful careers who are not willing to 
pay the price! 

Let a single illustration save the trouble of a 



320 



Baccalaureate Address. 



statement: Men say, " There is nothing to do," and 
here, in Newton county, there are not enough mar- 
ketable butter, eggs, and chickens to satisfy the 
demands of this commencement, and house-keepers 
must pay tribute to distant States for the most com- 
mon of table supplies. M3 7 guests are eating butter 
from East Tennessee. Yet the majority of our 
young men would rather stand behind a counter 
and measure off ribbons than to conduct a dairy or 
poultry farm. Another illustration of the thought 
I would impress is found in the tide of deluded 
emigrants leaving such a State as Georgia, year 
after year, dreaming of El Dorados in Texas, or in 
some other country, where they suppose that they 
can have an easy time. Where one succeeds, two, 
perhaps ten, fail. The failure is not in Texas, but 
in them. Such men would fail in the garden of 
Eden; they would neither till nor dress it. 

Before dismissing the subject of work sorely 
needed to be done, and of men humiliatingly scarce 
who can do it, I should call jour attention to a fact 
that merits your consideration. It is this: work 
that would pass twenty-five years ago will not pass 
to-day. The competitions are too sharp; this age 
requires more of us than the preceding age did. 
You cannot do the work with success that might 
have made your father rich and famous without the 
capacity to do better work than he did. Our ad- 
vancing civilization has multiplied our wants, sharp- 
ened our faculties, raised our standards. Hundreds 
of men of the former generation made themselves 
famous who could not, were they now beginning, 



Baccalaureate Address. 



321 



repeat their careers; they could not even hold their 
own. 

If harder work and better work are now required 
of us, we have commensurate encouragement and 
inspiration. Opportunity never offered greater re- 
wards for well-doing. This is preeminently true in 
the South. There is a word I frequently hear the 
young men employ in their speeches — "Renaissance" 
I think you call it. I use it to-day for the first 
time, I believe. Young men, this time is the Re- 
naissance of the South, so far as time and opportu- 
nity can make it. It rests with our men and wom- 
en whether they will make an accomplished fact 
what history, nature, and God have made a possi- 
bility. For my part, I am sick of croakers; I am 
worn out with the prophets of evil; I am disgusted 
with the men who have no voice except lamenta- 
tions over what they call the losses of the South, 
and no gratitude to God for her infinite and eternal 
gains. What did whining over losses ever do for 
the world? What will croaking about impending 
evils, that will not come if we be brave and true, 
ever accomplish? 

Marius, sitting in gloomy and wrathful medita- 
tions among the ruins of Carthage, is a sorry figure. 
Nehemiah, riding his mule by moonlight among 
the ruins of Jerusalem, meditating great plans for 
the restoration of her w T aste places, and working by 
daylight with heroic valor and endurance to accom- 
plish w T hat he hoped for, is the man to admire and 
imitate. 

Again I say, now begins the Renaissance of the 



322 Baccalaureate Ambuss, 



South, if her sons and daughters will have it so. 
Our fields and rivers call for us. The swelling tide 
of a true prosperity is beating against the barriers 
that false notions and evil customs have erected. O 
that we were wise, in this our day, to see the oppor- 
tunity that Heaven offers us! If we do not answer 
to the call that God makes upon us, others will. 
But we will have lost o\\r crown. Somebody will 
ivear it, for such a country as this Southern land will 
never rest till it claims a people who know how to use it. 

But you ask, "What can I do?" Do the thing 
nearest to you that you are best qualified for. You 
cannot wisely choose a profession simply on grounds 
of profit or honor. 

These considerations are not to be despised, but 
they are not the highest. No wise and good man 
will determine his life-work by the considerations 
that money and fame alone can offer; he will ask 
himself, "How can I do the most good?" At the 
same time remember, I beg you, that if you live ac- 
cording to God's plan of a human life you can do 
most good in the work you can do best, whether it 
be preaching, teaching, plowing, or building houses. 

If you do not find a profession that suits you, 
make one. James Vick, of the State of STew York, 
who died during the flowery month of May, was 
known and honored by millions of our people. 
Forty years ago he began to raise garden and flower 
seeds. He elevated his business into a profession. 
He has enriched untold thousands of American 
gardens with superior vegetables, and he has beau- 
tified untold thousands of American homes with the 



Baccalaureate Address. 323 



fairest flowers — doing more to cultivate a love for 
the beautiful than all the long-haired lecturers that 
ever talked aesthetics before bewildered audiences. 
He lived to become a great benefactor, giving away 
princely fortunes in the cause of education and be- 
nevolence. 

There is no country in the world to-day that offers as 
many opportunities for honorable, comfortable, profitable, 
useful living as this Southern country we live in. 

Let me tell you a true story of a man I met in 
Willimantic, Connecticut. He finished his school 
course about the beginning of the war between the 
States, and went into the army. At the close of 
the struggle he went into the machine-shops of the 
great manufacturing company with whose fortunes 
he is now so closely identified. He began an appren- 
ticeship, working at forty cents a day. He learned 
his business through and through, and he is to-day 
the chief man in an establishment whose capital 
aggregates five millions of dollars. He is making 
money and reputation; but this is not all — he is 
doing good incalculable. He is introducing into 
the great factories he controls the principles of the 
Sermon on the Mount. There is a store for the 
benefit of the operatives, where they buy the best 
things cheaper than they can buy them anywhere 
else; there is a free library, well patronized, that 
would make many a college proud. He has, in the 
construction and arrangement of the vast buildings 
where the army of operatives are employed, every 
contrivance that ministers to good taste, to health, 
and to comfort. There are beautiful flowers in con- 



324 



Baccalaureate Address. 



servatories connected with the mills. The cottages 
of the operatives are models of neatness and com- 
fort. Compared with others I saw in the same 
town, it was the difference between civilization and 
barbarism. How the operatives love this man! 
Yet there is no looseness of management, you may 
be sure. There is system and science in all things. 
For instance, they have reached this degree of ac- 
curacy: There is an arrangement by which every 
revolution of the great driving-wheel is counted by 
a self-registering machine. This man showed me 
the register for a series of weeks. I recall two. 
One w r eek the great wheel turned 198,196 times; 
the next week, 198,198 times — a difference of two 
turns of the giant driver that moved the whole vast 
and bewildering machinery. And this was about 
the average in the register for many weeks. Hotv 
did Major W. E. Barrows and those who labor with 
him reach such perfection in attending to their 
business? By attending to it; by doing their best to do 
it well. 

Would God that our young men knew the time 
they live in, and appreciated the land that God has 
given them for a heritage ! 

But I have said enough on these subjects. You 
go your ways now; Emory's blessing goes with 
you. Whatever you do, be men — manly men. 
Clear a little space about you for your feet, and put 
them down firmly. Do not be afraid to do right. 
Have opinions that rest on your convictions. Then 
express them when there is occasion. Maintain 
them, and, if need be, suffer for them. Fear nei- 



Baccalaureate Address. 325 



ther minorities nor majorities; fear what is wrong 
— what is false. Do your very best, and crucify 
unto the death all petty jealousies and envies and 
suspicions. If you cannot win the world's rewards 
fairly and honorably, fail. In such a case failure is 
success, and what is called success is failure forever 
and ever. When some crazy pre-adventist said to 
Emerson that the world was presently coming to an 
end, he answered, "I can get on very well without 
it." Until we can get on without the world we 
cannot get on with it as God intended we should. 
Keep your ship's prow seaward, and sink her in 
mid-ocean before you will make a port by flying the 
enemy's flag. 

Follow the truth as one finding his way out of a 
tangled wilderness w^ould follow the clear light of 
a star. In every good and right way persuade as 
many to go with you as you can. But if you must, 
go alone — rather, if there be no one with you except 
Christ the Lord, go alone. He was with the He- 
brew children in the furnace of fire. He is the 
majority. Keep all things right between you and 
him. As to the rest, you " can wait," if need be, 
till the judgment-day. 

My dear boys, Emory loves and trusts you. She 
commits her honor to you and pronounces her bless- 
ing on you to-day. Be true — true to yourselves, to 
one another, to all men, and to God. Be true to your 
section, and to this great Union and nation that 
God has set up as the hope of the oppressed, and 
that he would make a blessing to all the world. 



KENNETH H, McLAIN; 

OR, THE CHRISTIAN STUDENT. 
[OXFORD, GA., SUNDAY AFTER OPENING- DAT, OCT. 8, 1882,] 

" Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil ; 
cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another 
with brotherly love ; in honor preferring one another ; not slothful 
in business ; fervent in spirit ; serving the Lord ; rejoicing in hope ; 
patient in tribulation ; continuing instant in prayer ; distributing to 
the necessity of saints ; given to hospitality." Romans xii. 9-13. 

THE first Sunday of a college-year is always an 
interesting and important day in this church. 
The greetings between the old students returning, 
and the warm welcome they receive from their 
teachers and our citizens, are expressive of sincere 
affection and good-fellowship. Naturally, the new 
students are much observed; they are looking into 
each other's faces, and all of them — the old and the 
new — are trying to read one another, to find out 
w r hat manner of men they are. There is more in 
all this than mere idle curiosity; there is genuine 
human interest, and with very many a true Chris- 
tian solicitude. 

Among so many we may expect some triflers, who 
come to college with no clear conception of the end 
of their coming, and no fixed purpose as to what 
they will do. Some come only because it is the cus- 

(326) 



Kenneth H. McLain; 



327 



torn of people of their station to send their sons to 
college; they will be contented when they return 
home to say to their friends, " I have been off to 
college." These do not feel the need of knowledge 
or of training; they will return td thei!* homes much 
as they came, with possibly this solid gain : they will 
have lost something of their conceit and self-satis- 
faction. They will give sonie trouble to their teach- 
ers, for, being idle, they are apt to be disorderly and 
injurious in their influence. It is ttf be feared that 
such young men will acquire some additional bad 
habits, for it is as easy as it is natural for idle peo- 
ple to drift into evil currents. It is id be feared that 
they will be harmful to some who*, had they not 
come, might have done well in their cbllege life; for 
your habitual idler, above all riien, w&nts company, 
and is not pleased unless he can induce others to 
fall in with his ways. I do not think that this dis- 
position to induce others into evil wa^s is generally 
due to vicious sentiment, or a conscious purpose to 
do harm to others; it is rather the unrest of an idle 
mind that wants sympathetic companionship. One 
thing is clear to us who have had long observation 
in a college community! these habitual idlers will 
make themselves troublesome to men who wish to 
do good work; for a loafer is always a burden to a 
worker. Moreover, he is sure to be a "sponge;" 
if nothing else, he will be always seeking to borrow 
other people's brains. Too indolent to learn, and 
too proud to be utterly unprepared, he will seek all 
easy devices for getting over his lessons. Long prac- 
tice in these devices will make him skillful in them, 



328 



Kenneth H. McLain; 



and he is apt to acquire the feeling that he has a 
sort of natural right to have other people do his 
work for him. If he had only staid at home, if 
he would only return to-morrow, what a relief to 
the serious and diligent students of the college! I 
have perhaps said more about this sort of student 
than he deserves, but it is impossible to ignore 
him. 

But among so many some come to do their best, 
and some day they will make the world better. 

I said that the first Sunday in a college-year is an 
important day with us. It is so for many reasons; 
two I mention. On this day many new students 
present the evidence of their membership in their 
churches at home and identify themselves with us 
for a time in the fellowship of our church in Oxford. 
Another reason is, it has grown to be a custom with 
us to have the communion of the Lord's Supper on 
the first Sunday of a college-year. On these occa- 
sions many devoted young men, during past years, 
have consecrated themselves anew to lives of Chris- 
tian duty and service. 

Another element of interest enters into this morn- 
ing's service — it is the home-love that follows you 
here. I need not dwell upon this; many of your 
hearts are now full of the pure and tender filial love 
and gratitude you feel for your parents at this hour. 
One gracious result in every right-minded boy when 
he goes from home is this : he learns as he never 
knew before how much he loves his father and 
mother. Only a fool is ashamed of the tender feel- 
ing this discovery awakens. To me, young men, it 



Or, The Christian Student. 329 



is a sweet and cheering thought that at this hour, 
in many churches, there are good men and women 
who can hardly listen to their preachers for think- 
ing of and praying for you. But these things can- 
not be put into words; only God understands the 
pathetic solicitude with which parents follow their 
children when they go out into the world, whether 
to school or to business. 

I would like, at this point, to say a few words to 
you concerning the real end of a college life, like 
that which we offer you here. It is expected that 
you will learn many things of practical utility. In 
the languages, in mathematics, in the sciences, in 
ethics, in metaphysics, you study that you may gain 
knowledge* You cannot overestimate the value of 
such knowledge; but there is an end to be achieved 
more important than even this. I mean your thor- 
ough training. The information you will gain is 
invaluable, I grant you; the discipline of mind that 
you should acquire while gaining this information, 
and in the very processes by which you gain it, is 
also beyond price. A college training should give 
you the fullest use of your best powers. To express 
substantially the same idea in different words : the 
college not only desires to make scholars of you, but, 
in the very best sense, and after the noblest ideals, 
to make men of you. 

With these views I say, a college that is not 
Christian in all its convictions and inspirations is 
fatally lacking in the conditions and influences nec- 
essary to the accomplishment of this highest end 
of true education — the making of men — strong, 



330 



Kenneth Bt. McLain; 



broad, intelligent, wise, pure, and true men. Young 
men, it is with gratitude to God this morning that 
I can say to you, without reserve or doubt, it is a 
Christian college and community that welcome you 
to-day. 

In what time remains for this discourse I am 
going to commend to you the example of one who 
was four years among us, and whose life was such 
that we may well speak of him as The Christian Stu- 
dent. I speak of the Rev. Kenneth H. McLain, who 
entered the freshman class in the fall of 1876; who, 
having completed the full course of four years, grad- 
uated with much credit in 1880; who, in October of 
that year — with his young wife, and his classmates 
George Loehr and Hector Park — was appointed 
a missionary to China. Most of you know the sad 
and moving story of his return to America. A few 
weeks ago he "fell on sleep' 3 and "was not," for 
God took him. 

This is not a funeral discourse! I wish to teach 
some lessons from the student-life of the devoted 
young missionary whose departure from this world 
we lamented. Let me read the text again. St. Paul's 
words describe with singular felicity and accuracy 
the life and character of Kenneth McLain while a 
student in Emory College: 

"Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that 
which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be 
kindly afiectioned one to another with brotherly 
love; in honor preferring one another; not sloth- 
ful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; 
rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continu- 



Or, The Christian Student. 



331 



ing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity 
of saints; given to hospitality." 

I knew him about as well as it is possible for one 
man to know another. Two years he lived in my 
family, and was as a son to me. I do not say too much 
when I say the words I have read are not too strong 
as descriptive of the spirit and life of my dear boy 
who has " passed into the heavens," and of whom 
men say, "He is dead." Yerse nine describes Mc- 
Lain's sincerity of spirit and purity of heart. There 
was no dissimulation in his love or life. His soul 
was open to all light; his lips were without guile; 
his life was without deceit. The truth was in him, 
and the truth had made him free. No man among 
his fellows wanted corroborative evidences when he 
made a statement ; his word was enough ; none who 
knew him could suspect the veracity of his speech 
or the sincerity of his convictions. There could not 
be dissimulation in his professions of love, for his 
soul abhorred that which was evil and cleaved to that 
which was good. I am not, in what I say to you 
this morning, idealizing a deceased friend ; the man, 
while he was among us, was what I tell you. This 
conception of his character did not come to me after 
he was dead; it grew upon me daily while he was 
with us. It was his life, not his death, that made 
me sure I did not misjudge him. I believe that 
there was just one thing that he hated — he " ab- 
horred that which was evil," Rarely have I known 
men or women, young or old, who recoiled with 
more horror from moral evil. He apprehended with 
intense vividness in his conceptions the essential 



332 Kenneth H. McLaIn; 



sinfulness of sin and the ineffable beauty of holi- 
ness. 

Yerse ten describes McLain's relations to his fel- 
low-students* He was kindly affectioned to them; 
he loved them with brotherly love. Many students 
I have known whose interest in the welfare of their 
fellow-students was constant; I have never known 
one who loved them more. He was true to his lit- 
erary society, devoted to his club; but his love was 
not confined to those who wore his colors or whose 
badges were like his own. He had loving friends 
in all ranks and circles of college life, for he 46 showed 
himself friendly" to all. Naturally, he was a poor 
partisan; but when a difficulty was to be settled, a 
trouble pacified, a breach healed, McLain was called 
for and listened to. He was marvelously free — per- 
fectly free, so far as I could ever see — from that bane 
of student life, the envy of rivals. There were some 
who surpassed him in their class standing; but 
their success cast no shadow on him; he was glad 
when they were crowned; he could do what not 
every one can do with hearty good- will, " rejoice 
with them that rejoice." As well as any young 
man I have known, he understood that saying of 
our Lord: " Except ye be converted, and become as 
little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of 
heaven." 

Verse eleven describes McLain's methods and 
spirit in relation to all duties: he was diligent in 
business; he was fervent in spirit; he was always 
serving the Lord. He might have said at any time 
— though I never heard him say any thing like it — 



Or, The Christian Student. 333 



" Thou, Lord, art ever before me." I think I can 
say very safely, he never shirked a single college 
duty of any sort. Had he studied only to secure a 
good class standing, or to win the praise of men, his 
motive would have failed him at some point. There 
is but one inspiration to duty that can be relied upon 
at all times: it is the thought of God and our duty 
to him. With our now translated and glorified 
brother every duty had such dignity and worth that 
it commanded his loyal effort to perform it. I give 
him this high praise: it never entered his mind to 
dodge a lesson by the invention of an inglorious ex- 
cuse. He would have felt himself simply disgraced 
to have performed a college duty in the mere letter 
that he denied in spirit. As, for example, to have 
gone to the church-door and then to have gone at 
once elsewhere, and to have answered at Monday's 
roll-call in chapel, "At church." He would have 
counted such a thing as lying; and it is lying. He 
would have esteemed it as profanation; and it is 
profanation. 

McLain came to college to get all the good and 
to do all the good possible to him. IsTot many men 
or women do their best ; I believe he did. It was 
more than once said of him, as was said of Stone- 
wall Jackson at West Point: " So great was his im- 
provement upon himself that had the college course 
taken ten years, instead of four, he would have out-* 
stripped all his fellows." 

One summer vacation he spent with me. He asked 
ire to suggest a line of reading. I said, " Will you 
do what I tell you? " He answered, with a sort of 



334 



Kenneth H. McLain; 



open-eyed wonder at my question, " I will." " Well," 
said I, "yon must not simply read for information; 
you must learn how to investigate, how to run down 
a subject. Take the life and times of Cromwell. 
Here is a history of England; read these chapters 
first. Here are the cyclopedias; read all that they 
say of Cromwell and of the men of his time. Here 
are Carlyle's volumes concerning Cromwell's life 
and letters; read them. Then read all that the 
essayists say of him, and every thing else by compe- 
tent writers that you can find." He spent the three 
months reading about Cromwell, and wrote a very 
full essay that would have done credit to an older 
investigator. The duty-idea ran like a golden thread 
through the entire warp of his college work. No 
wonder he improved upon himself. 

Verse twelve describes the type of his piety. He 
rejoiced in hope ; he was patient in trial ; he was in- 
stant in prayer. There was neither sourness nor 
gloom in his religion. There was neither Pharisaic 
display nor Puritanic hardness. He was far from 
gayety — that is mostly a matter of temperament, 
and his was too serious and devout for gayety. But 
his gravity of deportment was not in the least affect- 
ed. He could laugh when amused, and when the 
spell was on him he laughed vigorously. His relig- 
ious joy was very nearly a constant quantity, and 
largely because it grew out of his habitual experi- 
ence; it was not spasmodic. Sometimes his exulta- 
tion of spirit broke the bounds of ordinary reserve, 
and his rejoicing w r as great. For the most part 
such rejoicings were over victories won in the res- 



Or, The Christian Student. 



335 



cue of his companions from sin, and not in the exu- 
berance of mere personal good-feeling. I recall one 
of his jubilant moods. It was in my sitting-room 
one night during the " Christmas revival." Some 
friends had been converted, and " Mack " was lifted 
up. How shall I describe to you who did not know 
him his "patience in tribulation?'' It cannot be 
described. This phase of his experience appeared 
in its full-orbed luster when the trouble came that 
brought him back from China. He had without 
reserve given himself to the work of preaching 
Christ in that land of darkness with its crowding 
millions. On that subject I knew his inmost 
thoughts. He expected to be buried there. Then 
came the breaking up of all his plans and the wreck- 
ing of all his hopes. His return to us was like a 
tragedy. How could he bear it? Xot by any sud- 
den development of manly strength or philosophic 
composure. When his trial came there was the 
gathered strength of years of consecrated living to 
meet it. I have seen many men in " tribulation; " 
not one have I known who surpassed Kenneth Mc- 
Lain in Christian patience. 

I say Christian patience, for it was not the grim 
fortitude of the stoic; it was not the insensibility 
of dull and dumb despair. Every fiber of his nat- 
ure was quivering with agony, his heart was nigh 
to breaking, but in it all he had "the peace that 
passeth all understanding." In all that came upon 
him he did not "charge God foolishly." Providen- 
tial circumstances kept him in Atlanta from April 
to the close of 1881. A man was needed in the work 



336 



Kenneth H. McLain; 



of the city missions — a pastor had died. McLain gave 
himself to that work as fervently as if he had never 
thought of China. Returning to his own Confer- 
ence, he received his appointment and went to his 
circuit as if he had never done anj 7 thing else. Soon 
came his sickness. He was never well again. His 
sickness and death I do not dwell upon — it was an 
easy victory for him who had conquered his fight 
of faith a year before. Last summer, while he lay- 
sick in our town, some of you saw in him, it is true, 
the marks of wounds; and this did not surprise 
those who know something of the deeper experi- 
ences of religion. But you saw more than this — 
you saw the trophies of his triumph. Not once did 
I catechise him about his spiritual state while he 
was getting ready " to put on immortality." But 
one clay of himself he opened the subject, and he 
said this to me: "I am willing to get well and 
work on ; I am willing to die and rest. God will 
do right.*' It was Jesus who said in Gethsemane, 
" Thy will, not mine, be done." When a man about 
to go hence talks in that way there is no room for 
lamentation; it were better to sing an anthem. 

Yerse thirteen describes his instinct of usefulness. 
In his short and broken life there was little oppor- 
tunity to show hospitality in the literal and ordina- 
ry sense, and little he had of this world's goods to 
distribute. But St Paul's Greek means, to give it 
more literally, " sharing in the necessities of saints." 
This he did to the utmost of his opportunity. His 
heart throbbed with quick and intense sympathy 
when others suffered. When he could help, he 



Or, The Christian Student. 337 



helped promptly; when he could not, he suffered 
with those who suffered. There was not a drop of 
selfish, narrow blood in him. The man who was 
sorry when others failed, and was glad when they 
had success, could not fail to help all who needed 
what he could give. He did not " live unto him- 
self." 



I shall love him always and forget him never. In 
many places and in many relations his image will 
rise before me. But there are some occasions which 
I recall with most vividness: I can almost see him 
when I think of him. The first is the day he came 
to Oxford to enter college. He promptly reported 
at my office. The tall, angular, awkward, and em- 
barrassed boy seems almost to be before me now. 
When we had shaken hands and he had taken a 
chair, he broke silence in thiswise: "Dr. Haygoocl, 
I have not had good opportunities; I know very 
little; but I have come to do my best." His face 
was beautiful in its candor, and truth was in the 
very tones of his voice. 

1 recall the night — it was about mid night — he broke 
to me his sacred secret — his purpose to offer himself 
for China. How his "fervent spirit" glowed in his 
face and eyes! How he thrilled me with the hum- 
ble, devout tones of his voice! I recall the paling 
and flushing of his face, and the intense look in his 
eyes that memorable Commencement-Sunday after- 
noon in June, 1880, when he and Loehr and Park 
talked to you, standing just there. I recall the glad 
light of his face as he kissed me good-by when in 
22 



338 



Kenneth H. McLain; 



the October following, about sunrise one morning, 
they started westward toward the field of their 
choice and love. And I recall him the day he 
grasped my hand in Atlanta when he had come 
back, with his great grief of disappointment and 
his great burden of anxiety. There was no need 
for him to tell me in words that day that his faith 
was firm, that his soul was staid on God. The first 
look out of his eyes told me that. 

But they say he is dead — this model Christian stu- 
dent, this heroic young missionary. The necessities 
of language require us to use such words, but so 
far as the real man — the man of whom I have been 
speaking to you — is concerned, Kenneth McLain is 
not dead. In any sense that makes death a fearful 
thing such a man never dies. Sometimes they build 
memorial tombs over young men of promise who 
have passed away in the morning of their life. A 
common form is a broken column, to indicate a 
marred life. It is not a Christian symbol. Who 
knows what success is? Who knows enough of 
God's ways and of eternity to say of an old saint 
who w r orked all through his long day, praised by 
all and honored by all 9 that he succeeded, and that 
the young man who fell on the field of battle at the 
first onset failed? Such a life as McLain's cannot 
be a failure; his influence lives here in this college, 
and there are Emory boys in more States than one 
whom God gave to his college-ministry as the first- 
fruits of his harvest. Who can tell how far, how 
wide, how deep may be the ministry of McLain as 
perpetuated in these, his sons in the gospel? 



Or, The Christian Student. 339 



And it seems to me very foolish and heathenish 
to use such words as "blighted lives/ J as "failure," 
about one who so uses this world as to get well 
ready for the next. As if there were need of good 
men only here; as if good men can only do good 
while in the flesh ! In God's natural world there is 
no waste; much less in his spiritual world. It is 
well that McLain struggled through college ; it is 
well that he went to China; it is well that he re- 
turned to America ; it is well that he has gone out 
of this world into heaven. For all I know he may 
be more useful to this world out of the body than 
in the body. What we call death does not dissipate 
spiritual energy, any more than the decay ; of spring- 
flowers or forest-oaks annihilates the substance that 
gave them form and color. 

Spirit abides. McLain and all the good people 
who have gone out of this world are now as much 
a part of the spiritual and redeeming forces of the 
universe as they ever were. And character abides. 
Wherever he is to-day, whatever he is doing, the 
words of our text describe him. 

While we engage in this precious communion 
service, let us ask more of the mind of Christ, that 
we also may rejoice in hope, be patient in tribula- 
. tion, and continuing instant in prayer, may receive 
at the last a crown of life. 



THE NEW SOUTH 

FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT, 
[A SPEECH, 5 -] 



OVERNOR LONG, I thank you for the gra- 
\ZJC cious and graceful introduction you have given 
me. During the last three weeks I have been speak- 
ing in New England, and I have begun by saying, 
" Ladies and gentlemen;" but to-day and here I 
say, " Fellow-citizens." And why should I not use 
these words? Georgia and Massachusetts both be- 
long to the original thirteen. The first place I vis- 
ited in your city was Bunker Hill, and I have looked 
at that part of the bay where they emptied the tea- 
chests. 

A few days ago I read President Arthur's mes- 
sage. My heart burned within me with gratitude 
and hope that it contained no reference to "the 
South " as a peculiar section of the country. Mr. 
Vice-president Davis says it is the first message in 

* Delivered in Tremont Temple, Boston, Massachusetts, at noon 
Monday, December 12, 1881. This speech was delivered in sub- 
stance in fifteen other cities and towns of New England. December 
12th, Governor Long, of Massachusetts, presided, and introduced the 
speaker with many kind references to the South. Bishop E. S, 
Foster offered prayer. 
(340) 



The New SouM. 



341 



forty years that has not contained such a reference. 
It is a good omen. As it seems to me, there is 
hardly any thing so desirable as that the South 
should be thought of. as simply part of the Nation, 
as is the North, the East, the West, and that it 
should think of itself in this way. 

TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW. 
As I am to talk to you of the " New South " I 
have little to do with history. I have little to do 
with yesterday except to repent of its sins, to learn 
wisdom from its failures, and to be grateful for its 
blessings. But I do not recall it now, neither your 
yesterday nor ours* As to whatever was bitter in 
any of its experiences, it is time for wise and good 
people to say, " Let the dead bury their dead." 

"THE SOUTH." 
That part of the United States that is called " The 
South " is a large part of North America. It may 
be described as extending from Delaware, along the 
Atlantic and Gulf coasts, to Mexico; going west- 
ward, it embraces all south of the Ohio River. West 
of the Mississippi would be counted as of the South 
— Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and the empire * 
of Texas. The South contains fifteen of the States 
of the Union; five of them belonging to the " orig- 
inal thirteen." These States embrace a territory of 
nearly nine hundred thousand square miles, some- 
thing more than twelve times the territory of New 
England. You have but one State as large as our 
smallest. Texas would make four New Englands; 
it would make two hundred and ten of Rhode Island. 



342 



The New South 



(But if we compare manufactures, and not acres, I 
am afraid that Rhode Island would make two hun- 
dred and ten of Texas.) 

IN VARIETY OF SOILS, CLIMATES, 

productions of the earth, and minerals, I suppose 
that no country can surpass the South. Nature 
gave the first comers to this region a good start and 
a fair chance. The South produces nearly all the 
varieties of food, vegetable and animal, that civilized 
man cares for. Few, if any, countries can show such 
a variety of woods and minerals. To illustrate how 
great is this variety and range of productions in 
the South, take my own State of Georgia for ex- 
ample. In the northern counties of the State, a re- 
gion traversed by the Blue Ridge range of mount- 
ains, may be found in perfection the vegetables and 
fruits common to mountainous and northern coun- 
tries, as cabbages, potatoes, apples, buckwheat, etc. 
The middle part of the State produces all the most 
valuable cereals ; it abounds in the most useful 
fruits and vegetables. In the southern counties we 
have rice, sugar-cane, oranges, bananas, and many 
of the best tropical and semi-tropical productions. 
In South Georgia are found vast stretches of long- 
leaf pine forests, affording the best of lumber, and 
sustaining hundreds of turpentine distilleries. (We 
have found these distilleries much less injurious than 
distilleries of a different, class.) The northern part 
of Georgia, south of the Blue Ridge, is a true gold- 
bearing region. In some counties we find copper, 
in others slate and the finest building-stone; in 



From a Southern Stand-point. 343 



North-west Georgia, coal. Nearly as much may be 
said of half a dozen Southern States. The coal and 
iron fields of Tennessee and North Alabama are said 
by experts to be practically inexhaustible. 

SOME DEVELOPMENTS OF LATE YEARS 

are surprising some of the older people. For in- 
stance, the cotton and sugar-cane belts have moved 
northward from one to two hundred miles. In my 
own county of Newton, on about the same parallel 
with Atlanta, a number of farmers, I am told, have 
this year made large quantities of the best sirup 
from genuine ribbon-cane. Twenty years ago it was 
thought that sugar-cane would not grow so high up 
the country. And cotton is now produced profita- 
bly a hundred miles north of where it was consid- 
ered, in old times, an unprofitable crop. But sinje 
Providence set our white people free, they have 
u found out many inventions." % 

Butthese matters cannot be further discussed atthis 
time ; a few samples will suffice for those who know 
something of the productions of other countries. 

The great export staples of the South, as all men 
know, are tobacco, chiefly confined to Virginia, 
North Carolina, Kentucky, and parts of Tennessee; 
sugar, Louisiana furnishing the greater portion of 
this product; and cotton, Virginia, Kentucky, and 
Missouri affording but a small part of this greatest 
of Southern products. 

If the world wants it, the cotton -belt can produce 
ten times any crop it ever raised. For we have 
found that by high culture we can produce three 



344 



The New South 



times the average crop, and one-fourth of the cotton- 
lands have not been brought under the plow. And 
when this country becomes — as it will at no very 
distant period — the home of three hundred millions 
of people, we will need sixty millions of bales. 

It would be difficult to draw a just outline pict- 
ure of this vast region, to give a fair account of its 
natural resources and of its industries, in a single 
address. How impossible to make a full statement 
of life in the South — a far more complicated subject 
for investigation and discussion. 

THE ORDINARY ''BIRD'S-EYE VIEW" 

the mere tourist gives of a country is well named ; 
generally only a bird's observation and wisdom are 
back of it. The migratory birds — wild geese for ex- 
ample, in their annual flights northward and south- 
ward — as they fly look down upon fields and forests, 
hamlets and cities. Xo doubt they have their views 
of all these things and report them to their friends, 
just as mere tourists do who glimpse a country from 
car-windows, reading books or papers for the most 
part, when they are not asleep. 

I have never been in New England (so much the 
worse for me) before this time. Suppose now that 
I write home to our papers my views of New. En- 
gland, its climate, soil, and productions; my notions 
and guesses as to the characteristics of your people, 
the nature of your institutions, the tendencies of 
your civilization, and other such infinitely compli- 
cated matters, making up my mind about you and 
all your affairs in the cars, on the streets, at lunch- 



From a Southern Stan^-poIm** 345 



counters, in railroad eating-houses^ hotels, in the 
few households I visit, or even by looking into the 
faces of an audience like this. I should make many 
mistakes, injurious to you or complimentary over- 
much. And if I come among you with a prejudice 
that tended to make my eye contract under the in- 
fluence of light, I should be tempted to affirm of you 
iv hat I did not know to be true^ which I take to be the 
most harmful form of lying practiced among men. 

" In this world," says an old German proverb, 
"the eye sees what it brings capacity for seeing." 
There are plenty of things to see if there be only an 
eye. With equal truth it may be said the eye sees 
what it looks for, as the humming-birds and butter- 
flies always find the brightest flowers, and the vult- 
ures always find the dead things. It was Parker, 
the London preacher, or some other man who had 
the Christ spirit in him, who prayed that 66 we may 
have grace to see the best things in each other" To this 
prayer all good people will say "Amen." 

THE PEOPLE MORE THAN THE LAND. 

The true student of a country concerns himself 
more about the people than the land; if for no other 
reason, because, as the history of New England 
shows, there is more in the people than in the land. 
In the South there are about sixteen millions of peo- 
ple — a respectable part of the fifty millions that 
make up the population of the United States. Un- 
less we wish to lapse into savagery, the people of 
the different sections of the Union cannot afford to 
hate each other, or even to think evil of each other 



346 



The New South 



as classes. The devil is in all wholesale denunciation. 
If there is one supreme civil duty that this hour 
calls for, it is the burial of sectional animosities. If 
there is one civil crime the most unpardonable, it 
would be for us to hand down to our innocent chil- 
dren the heat and bitterness of a quarrel for which 
they, at least, are not responsible. 

Of the sixteen millions, about ten millions are 
white, and six millions are negroes. (I use the word 
negro because it means black*) Each race is homo- 
geneous in itself. The white people are nearly all 
of English descent^ and nearly all Protestant. In 
Georgia, for instance, according to the last census, 
in a total population of 1,538,983, only 10,310 are of 
foreign birth* 

PURE-BLOOD AFRICANS. 
Of the six millions of colored people in the South, 
the overwhelming majority are pure-blood Africans, 
though many lighter skins among them show the 
mixture of races. The white blood betrays itself. 
This explains, in part, the hasty and erroneous con- 
clusions of those who give "bird's-eye views" of the 
South. They think that there are very large num- 
bers of mulattoes among us. They are mistaken, 
and not unnaturally. A score of black children are 
passed unnoticed; one mulatto is observed. An- 
other fact should be considered: most of the half- 
breeds are found in towns and cities, and from 
towns and cities tourists get their impressions of 
a country. But the great mass of Southern pop- 
ulation is in the rural districts. This should also 
be added as a part of the statement of this case: 



From a Southern Stand-poIn*. 



347 



few mulattoes have been born during the last six- 
teen years. 

OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEGRO 
population of the South there is only time to give 
you a hurried sketch. When they were set free 
they had little but their trained muscle and their 
hope. Of many of them this should be added — their 
faith in God. This also: they had the good-will of 
the great majority of the Southern white people, 
particularly of the minority that once owned them as 
slaves. And now the former slave-holders are more 
patient with them than are those of our people who 
never owned them; they are more patient with them 
than are Northern people who have come South 
since the war. During the last sixteen years many 
of them have had a sharp struggle for existence. 
Many of our white people have had a similar expe- 
rience* A few of these emancipated people have 
shown good capacity for business, and have accumu- 
lated handsome properties. A large number have 
built themselves humble dwellings, which are their 
own, and a few have gained some foothold in the 
soil and are the owners of small farms. Most of 
them depend for subsistence on their daily labor, 
and the great majority are at work on the farms and 
plantations, as hired laborers, or as tenants on con- 
tracts renewable at the end of each year. 

HOW THEY LIVE. 
They have this advantage of the laboring classes 
of some other countries and sections: they are not 
subject to " lockouts;" they are not victimized by 



348 



THi: Kew Sottas 



" strikes; " nor are they liable to be thrown out of 
employment by " panics " or suspensions; for agri- 
culture does not suspend. It may be questioned 
whether the laboring classes of any country are so 
certain of employment as are the negroes of the 
South who really w T ish to work. They are begin- 
ning to appear upoti the tax -books as land-owners. 
Thus, in Georgia, according to the report of the 
Comptroller-general for 1880 (and I take Georgia 
only because the figures were accessible to me, and 
I did not wish to guess), they own of " improved 
lands 3 ' 586,664 acres— -a showing most creditable to 
them. And of these negro landowners this may 
be said with certainty ■ they are more satisfactory 
as neighbors and citizens than are those who do not 
own land. A little land does more to elevate him 
as a citizen than even the wonder-working ballot 
itself. They live, most of them, in small and un- 
comfortable cabins. But thkgives them less trouble 
than Northern people may suppose. They have had 
a good training in order to contentment with small 
things; the climate favors them; most of them have 
enough to eat, and in winter fuel enough to keep them 
warm. They will spend their last dime for food or 
fuel, and if it comes to the pinch will get it else- 
wise. (Some white men, I have observed, employ 
similar methods.) The negro is constitutionally and 
habitually a meat-eater; it may be well questioned 
whether the common laborer of any country has as 
much meat to eat as the Southern negro. A fence 
rarely survives a severe winter if it be close to a ne- 
gro settlement in a town or village where wood is 



From a Southern Stand-point, 



349 



scarce. The average negro will burn his own fence 
without compunction or hesitation. I have a negro 
neighbor who has burned his own fence and part of 
mine four winters in succession. 55~ext spring he 
and I will make a new fence. 

Few of them are skilled workmen — the best me- 
chanics among them learned their trades when they 
were .slaves. Free Southern negroes and Southern 
white boys are alike in one thing at least — they are 
impatient of apprenticeship. This is one reason why 
the South is so far behind in the mechanic arts. 

AS A CLASS THEY ABE NOT SYSTEMATIC 

in their plans and labors; few of them know how 
to lay by for a " rainy day." When they were slaves 
they had no motive for economy; when old or worn 
out their masters provided for them as no great cor- 
poration provides for its disabled servants. The 
exceptions to this statement were few — the master 
who did not provide for his sick or disabled negroes 
lost caste. Their lack of foresight and economy 
may be well explained by their antecedents; some 
of them antedating their coming to America. 

But poor aud shiftless as they are, they are im- 
proving; they are not slipping back into barbarism, 
and they are not dying out. (The last census shows 
that they increase somewhat faster than does the 
white race.) The tax-books show that they are be- 
ginning to produce a little more than they consume. 
They live better than they did ten years ago. 

Many of them drink whisky when they can get 
it. As a race, they are fond' of strong drink — as 



350 



The New South 



all races are. But I think as to sobriety they will 
compare favorably with the common laborers of 
other races and countries. But when it comes to 
temperance reform, they wi\\ not do to depend on 
overmuch. Witness the prohibition movement in 
North Carolina, last summer, when the revenue offi- 
cers voted them almost solid in favor of the bar- 
rooms. 

Their conventional moral code allows more mar- 
gin than is consistent with sound ethics. But they 
are not so bad as many Northern, as well as South- 
ern, writers have represented them to be. The fact 
is, too much attention has been concentrated on the 
South for just judgments, either as to the negroes 
or the whites. 

UNTAUGHT. 

One of the saddest facts of their lot is that most 
of them are very ignorant. The majority of them 
are untaught. (Many of our white people are in 
the same condition.) Few ex -slaves can read. 
While slavery lasted, there was small chance to 
teach them; some w^ere taught, nevertheless. A 
few ex-slaves have learned to read since they be- 
came free—greatly to their credit. Thousands of 
the younger race can read and write and cipher — 
if not after the best models, yet profitably. Many 
of them have learned these things after the best 
models. (Witness, for instance, specimens of the 
school-work done by negro boys and girls in the 
public schools of Atlanta — some of it as good as the 
best.) One of the most encouraging signs of their 
progress and uplifting is this: It is fast becoming a 



From a Southern Stand-point, 351 



point of honor with colored parents that their chil- 
dren learn to read and write. 

Alas that there ever was any hinderance to their 
education ! God be thanked, there is now next to 
no opposition to their instruction, Where you can 
find one heathen man or benighted neighborhood 
opposing their education, I can find twenty that 
favor it. 

THEIR DISPOSITIONS, 

As a class they are obliging, good-tempered, and 
mi revengeful. Their disposition to help one another 
is wonderful. They have many relief societies that 
help in sickness or other distress, Their treasurers 
are held to strict accountability. Few bank direct- 
ors watch cashiers so closely. But some negroes 
are as dishonest and mean as any white man, and 
now and then one ^absorbs" the funds of the soci- 
ety. But they do not say, " He has been unfortu- 
nate; has overdrawn;" that he is a "defaulter." 
They express themselves plainly; they say, "That 
nigger is a thief." And they are right. (When- 
ever a negro wishes to express his contempt, or to 
jeer at one of his fellows, he pronounces the word 
as if spelled with two "g's") 

I do not at this time go into a discussion of their 
future. I content myself by saying these six mill- 
ion, and those who come after them, are in this 
country to stay, for the most part, and chiefly in 
those sections where they now are. What was 
called the "exodus' 5 turned out to be an immense 
word for a small affair. In some respects it would 
be well if fifty or one hundred thousand of them 



352 



The New' South 



could settle in each one of the New England 
and Middle States. It would give knowledge of 
this problem where it is needed, and teach pa- 
tience. 

THEY INCREASE IN NUMBERS. 

There is nothing like it this side the land of Goshen. 
The census shows an increase between 1870 and 
1880 of 34.78 per cent. This is larger than the 
percentage of total increase in the entire population. 
They have multiplied nine times in the last hundred 
years. 

People that can think need no help to see that in 
the relations of two such races in this country, this 
Nation has a problem of no ordinary magnitude to 
solve. The true solution of this problem is not a 
party matter. The Republican party is a big thing, 
as we of the South have found out, but it is not big 
enough to settle the questions of which I am speak- 
ing to-day; nor is any party or section. It will 
take the Christian sense and conscience of this 
whole people. 

These questions cannot be settled on any narrow party 
or " sectional basis." They mast be settled on the foun- 
dation of the Declaration of Independence and the Con- 
stitution of the United States; above ad, upon the Ten 
Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. 

THE PREMATURE BALLOT. 

The difficulties of our case are greatly increased 
by the fact that the ballot was given to the negro 
before he was ready to receive it. I refer now 
to an unpleasant matter. But this is the land of 



From a Southern Stand-point, 358 



free speech. I can now speak of these things 
without passion, and you must hear me without 
prejudice. 

You people of the North put a tremendous strain 
upon the institutions of our country when you made 
every recently enfranchised negro man a voter, dis- 
franchising, at the same time, thousands of our 
white people. Did it, too, when the wide and deep 
sea of our national life was still rocking and seeth- 
ing under the blasts of a four-years' storm. 

In times of great excitement the majority do not 
think; they only feel. But the most far-sighted of 
our Southern people clearly saw that the ballot was 
one of the logical sequences of the events of the 
war. But they did think that it should have been 
accompanied with some condition (not so hard, Gov- 
ernor Long, as Rhode Island and Massachusetts 
have imposed upon white men), but something, as 
that the new voter should be able to read the name 
of the man he voted for, and to sign his own name. 
White men are hardly competent to vote; they 
have been struggling toward fitness for five hundred 
years. But upon these emancipated negroes the 
ballot was tumbled en masse, and without condition. 
When he was made a voter the average Southern 
negro had just three ideas as to the significance of 
the ballot. It was proof that he was free ; it was 
an expression of your regard for him ; it was chiefly 
to keep the white people of the South down. This 
was his view. With such ideas he could have no 
just appreciation of the ballot, and little conscience 
in the use of it. As a matter of course he became, 



354 



The New South 



as a voter, the victim of adventurers and plaoe*hunt- 
ers in all sections. 

THE REAL WONDER. 

When we remember what the war was and what 
followed it ; when we remember that half a million 
men, who had lost their cause, disbanded from the 
Confederate armies, returned to a desolated and 
prostrate country; when we remember the stress 
and storm and fury of that period, the true wonder 
is not that there was a period of disorder which 
good men lamented, not that there were occasional 
outbreaks of violence which they deplored; the true 
wonder is that there was not utter and final chaos. 
And, as a man who lived in and through it all, X 
here declare my opinion that the one influence that 
saved the South from utter and remediless ruin was 
the leaven of the Christian religion that is so widely 
diffused throughout that region, both among the 
white and black people. 

But whatever was wise or unwise in the fact or 
manner of enfranchising the negro, it is now too 
late to discuss that. The ballot he has, and the 
ballot he will keep. And in this place I declare my 
opinion that the South will be the last part of this 
Union that will wish to take the ballot from him. 
If there were no other reasons, there are political 
considerations that will secure this result. 

HELP US. 

There is but one thing that can now be done. 
We must make the most of him. And we want 
you of the North to help us make the most of him, 



From a Southern Stand-point. 



355 



as a man and a citizen, with that thunderbolt of 
power, the ballot, in his hands. You have done 
much for him, but the results would have been bet- 
ter if you had had better knowledge of the work 
you had in hand. But I do not see how you could 
have had better knowledge unless you had had ex- 
perience, or unless we of the South had cooperated 
with you more heartily. We are not blameless in 
this matter. I, at least, am not blameless; I might 
have done more. But this I say in common justice: 
During those years of confusion and strife and mis- 
understanding on all sides, it was harder for us of 
the South to do just what we wished to do — -just 
what was right — than you can ever understand or 
appreciate. 

But times change and people change. There h 
everywhere in the South a growing interest in the 
education of the whole people. You can do more 
now, and we can help you as never before. We are 
beginuing to feel that all the people mast be educated^* 
must be. Ballots in the hands of ignorance are 
packages of dynamite, whether cast by a fair or a 
dark hand. 

THE NEGEO AND RELIGION. 

I should do wrong not to say a few words about 
the religious characteristics of the negroes in the 
South. No matter w r hat one may believe on the 
subject of religion in general, or of their religion in 
particular, no man who would understand them and 
their relations to the problem of our national life 
can afford to overlook their religious character. 



356 



The Xew South 



Their notions may be crude, their conceptions of 
truth sometimes grotesque and realistic to a painful 
degree, their religious development may show many 
imperfections — nevertheless, their most striking, im- 
portant, and formative characteristic is their relig- 
ion. The negro's Church is the center not only of 
his religious but of his social life. Their religion 
is real to them. They believe the Bible — every line 
and every word of it. To them God is a reality. 
So are heaven, hell, and the judgment-day. 

GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE. 
The religion of the Southern negro, slave or free, 
was and is a divine reality. During the late war it 
was pure and strong enough to secure peace and 
safety to women and children on the plantations 
while the men were away fighting under a flag which 
did not promise freedom to them. For this the just 
and good hold them in everlasting and grateful 
remembrance. And we may be quite sure that 
they understood what the war meant in its relations 
to them. 

They may not have outgrown their superstitions, 
but the school-house and the Bible will do for them 
what they have done for all people — drive out the 
evil and cruel spirits of superstition. 

THE SOUTHERN WHITE PEOPLE. 

But you have several million of brothers in white 
in the South. Of them I must tell you some things 
worthy of your consideration. 

As we have seen, the Southern white population 
is almost exclusively of English descent and Prot- 



From a Southern Stand-point. 357 



estant faith. Some of the characteristics of our peo- 
ple I mention; none of them I have time to discuss. 

NO ISMS. 

1. Those intellectual monstrosities known as 
"isms," born of cranky brains, are almost unknown 
in the South. They are never indigenous, and they 
get no foothold there. One of our critics suggests 
that we "have not enterprise enough to get up an 
ism." I accept the criticism in view of the com- 
pensation we have in deliverance from the affliction 
that is suffered by some. Among Southern people 
speculative infidelity is practically without an au- 
dience. Our people believe the Bible to be the word 
of God, and the number who doubt make an inap- 
preciable percentage of our population. Sinners 
we have plenty, but they are not infidels or atheists. 
They need preaching, repentance, and conversion. 

DANGEROUS CLASSES. 

2. The South is almost absolutely free from what 
are called " the dangerous classes." During the 
railroad riots of 1877 that in Pittsburg burst out 
in blood and flame — startling and shocking the 
whole country — there was hardly a strike in our 
section, and there w T as no violence or disturbance. 

A home-bred "tramp" is hardly ever seen; I 
never saw but one, and he was deaf and dumb. 
There is no tendency among us to communism, 
nihilism, or any such deviltry. Faults we have 
plenty, but not these. 

AT WORK. 

3. The Southern people nearly all live in the 



358 



The New South 



rural districts, and are at work, and have been at work 
all their lives. 

The second part of this statement you are dis- 
posed to doubt; it is asserted on all sides that " the 
South" is lazy. Lazy people we have — too many 
of them — but it is not true that our people as a class 
are lazy. 

A lady in Connecticut asked me one evening: 
" Did the white women of the South do any thing 
at all before the war?" I asked her: " What do 
you suppose to have been the facts as to the owner- 
ship of slaves in the South? About how many 
owned slaves?" She answered: "I suppose every 
family, except the utterly worthless, owned at least 
one or two to wait on them." I asked, in reply: 
"Did it ever occur to you to ask, Who made the 
living while one or two negroes waited on white 
people who did nothing?" 

There were in the South, in the old times, people 
of wealth and leisure who did no work ; just as your 
aristocrats and millionaires of Boston do nothing 
that they can hire another to do. But the majority 
of slave-holders worked. I will give you a fair av- 
erage case. My grandfather began life a poor man; 
he first kept house in a log-cabin. He was a hard 
worker and was economical. In a few years he 
saved enough to become the owner of two or three 
slaves. He died at fifty-six, owning fifty or sixty 
negroes. But till he was too old, or till his super- 
intendence was worth more than his personal labor, 
he led the foremost row in the field. ("We have 
large families in the South, Governor Long.) He 



From a Southern Stand-point. 359 



brought up five sons to the plow, and five daugh- 
ters could spin and. weave under the old dispensa- 
tion. My father taught me to plow, and I have not 
forgotten the art. 

WHAT WE FOUGHT FOR. 
As I have already told you, the majority of our 
people never owned slaves at all. The majority of 
them fought through our horrible war iiot for slav- 
ery, but for their doctrine of State rights, in which 
they had been brought up from the beginning. And 
as Mr. Lincoln, in a memorable letter to Horace 
Greeley, August 22, 1862, said: "My paramount 
object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is 
not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could 
save the Union without freeing any slave, I would 
do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, 
I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some 
and leaving others alone, I would also do that: " — So 
our people of the South would have set free every 
slave to have preserved their doctrine of State sov- 
ereignty. That for which they fought so long and 
well they surrendered at Appomatox for good and 
all; and tens of thousands of us have come to thank 
God not only that the slaves were set free, but 
that the Union was saved. 

PROOFS. 

But I was about to say something of our people 
as workers. There is surely some work done in the 
South. We never hear of people starving, and sta- 
tistics of pauperism show fewer people " on the coun- 
ty," or " on the town," than in any other civilized 



360 



The New South 



country. No man who saw the South in 1865, and 
who knows what she produced in 1880 and 1881, 
will make the general charge of laziness against our 
people. 

Commissioner Loring, the papers tell us, has re- 
cently repeated what so many have said, that the 
Southern farmer sticks to his old tools — showing in 
so many ways how behind the age he is. Much of 
this is true. But this does not prove that he is lazy. 
Solomon knew long before we of the North or we 
of the South began to find fault with each other that 
" if the iron be blunt, he that useth the ax must lay to 
more strength. " A man who does not know how 
to farm, and who uses inferior tools, must work all 
the harder if he succeeds. 

Let me make a witness of one of your own peo- 
ple, Mr. Edward Atkinson, of Boston. I quote his 
words (from an article in Good Company for Sep- 
tember), because he has been making an exhaustive 
study of the industries of the South since the war. 
Mr. Atkinsoir says: 

" To him who either hastily or w T ith ample time 
now studies the condition of the Southern States, 
from the end of the war to the present time, noth- 
ing will appear more marvelbiis than the recuper- 
ative power of a people so lately made free from 
bondage as the people of the South; and the term 
6 made free' is used with respect not only to all the 
blacks, but to the vast majority of the whites as 
well." [He might have said all the whites, for slav- 
ery was an incubus upon every white man, woman, 
and child in the South.] " By comparison with oth- 



From a Southern Stand-point. 



361 



er countries, the war left the Southern States with 
nothing but neglected lands, upon which were scat- 
tered dwellings more or less adequate to shelter the 
people, but with few mills or works of any kind, 
with old tools or none, and with all the internal ma- 
chinery of commerce practically destroyed. The 
soldiers from most of the Southern States went back 
after the surrender to meet conditions absolutely un- 
known before; they were obliged to begin life anew 
without capital, without experience to guide them, 
and in the face of conditions which, from their point 
of view, must have been absolutely appalling. How 
it has been possible even for men of intelligence, but 
whose only training in the practical work of life had 
been gained in the destructive operations of war, to 
have returned to fenceless and deserted farms and 
plantations, there to adapt themselves to a complete 
change, not only in the system of labor, but to a 
complete revolution of the very ideas of the people 
in regard to labor, and in the few years that have 
since elapsed to have compassed the great progress 
already made$ is one of the marvels the history of 
which has hardly yet been observed and is yet un- 
written/' 

SOUTHERN RECUPERATION. 

Mr. Atkinson is right; the recuperation of the 
South since April, 1865, is one of the marvels. No 
people were ever called upon to do such a work, 
and to solve such a problem under such conditions. 
'No people ever did more to recover from such an 
utter overthrow and such an utter reversal of all 
their political, social, and industrial doctrines and 



362 



The New SotrM 



methods. And their success is without a parallel in 
the history of conquered people. 

One of two things is true: either the South is the 
best country in the world, or the Southern people 
are at work. Both propositions are true. 

REVOLUTIONS. - 

4. The Southern people are almost exclusively an 
agricultural people, and in the Cotton States much 
inclined to give their energies to their great staple. 
Most of them serve their " King Cotton " with slav- 
ish loyalty; and dearly has he made them pay for 
their allegiance, as all despots do. 

But we are upon the threshold of revolutions. I 
do not say changes, but revolutions. We are enter- 
ing upon diversified industries. The manufacturing 
instinct manifests itself. The opinion is settling 
down into perfect conviction and confidence that 
some cotton-factories should be closer to cotton- 
fields than they are. Our people are going to try the 
experiment. Within the last few years there have 
been large increase and much success in our manu- 
facturing interests. 

FARMS VS. PLANTATIONS. 
What is, perhaps, more vital to our comfort and 
prosperity, our people are becoming convinced of 
the sound policy of diversified crops. The most 
marked and impressive change in our agricultural 
system is in the tendency to break up plantations into 
farms. I give you a few figures recently sent out 
from the census office. Thinking people cannot 
fail to understand the prophecy in them of vast and 



From a Southern Stand-point. 



363 



many changes in Southern life, and better things for 
us all. I take, for illustration, five States — Ala- 
bama, Arkansas, Florida^ Georgia, and South Car- 
olina. The table shows the number of proprietors at 
different periods. You will observe that the in- 
crease between 1860 and 1870 was about the same 
as between 1850 and 1860: 



States. 1880. 1870, 18*30. 1850. 

Alabama 135,864 67,382 55,128 41,964 

Arkansas 94,433 49,424 39,004 17,758 

Florida 23,438 10,241 6,568 4,304 

Georgia 138,626 69,956 62,003 51,759 

South Carolina 93,864 51,889 33,171 29,967 



These figures tell the story of a revolution that 
must affect every industrial and social interest in 
the South, and, as I believe, for the almost incon- 
ceivable bettering of our condition. Figures cannot 
measure the results of these changes; they cannot 
be compressed into any statistical columns whatso- 
ever. With small farms come ten thousand bless- 
ings — industrial, social, educational, and political — 
denied to the majority under the old plantation sys- 
tem, and that grow directly out of the ownership 
of the soil. For one thing: they make the common 

SCHOOL A CERTAINTY AND A NECESSITY. 

The number of proprietors has nearly doubled in 
the last ten years. The probabilit}* is that it will 
double again in the next ten. 

SMALL ECONOMIES. 

The multiplication of small farms, the increasing 
railroad facilities that Northern money for the most 
part is bringing to us, the development of manu- 



364 



The New South 



facturing interests, and the common school that is 
growing and strengthening itself in the confidence 
and love of the people from year to year, and, above 
all, free labor, will bring into the social and busi- 
ness habits of the Southern people that which, as a 
class, we have sorely needed and conspicuously 
lacked; that which largely, if not chiefly, accounts 
for the prosperity of New England; that which 
explains the marvelous financial recuperation of 
France after a most fearful war — I mean the habit 
of small economies. 

Many causes combined to develop wasteful and 
uneconomical habits among our people. It grew 
partly out of the fact that in a" fertile and thinly set- 
tled country, where land was cheap, where work can 
be done in the open field nearly every w T eek in the 
year, it was easy to produce more than was needed 
for consumption. The general lack of transporta- 
tion facilities made the surplus of small money value 
in the local markets; but beyond question our sys- 
tem of labor itself fostered waste by all our people. 

But economy we are learning. Free labor, trans- 
portation facilities, ready markets, small farms— all 
these things are helping ns. 

THE NEED OF SAVINGS-BANKS. 

All over the South we need what we have never 
hacl, outside of a few of our larger cities (and they 
have been so managed as to amount to but little 
there) — we need savings-banks, and the habits of 
economy and the practice of small savings which 
they foster and encourage. The savings-bank, 



From a Southern Stand-point. 



365 



rightly managed and well patronized, would almost 
work miracles among us. It is needed for whites 
and blacks; some place, some way, for saving the 
small margins between production and consumption. 

If the savings-bank becomes an institution in the 
South, it must first win confidence. The disasters 
that followed the collapse of the Freedman's Sav- 
ings-bank was an immeasurable calamity to the ne- 
groes of the South. What we want (and, as it ap- 
pears to me, there is nothing we need more in our 
business life) is a savings-bank system that can be 
available in our small towns and villages. A sav- 
ings-bank in Atlanta or Savannah might as well be 
in Boston so far as the majority of the people of 
Georgia are concerned. "Why cannot our " pater- 
nal government'' devise some plan, something like 
the English system, recommended, I believe, by Mr. 
Postmaster-general James — a post-office savings-bank 
sy 'stem, available by all our people, so that they can 
deposit, where they will be safe, their small savings? 
The people want a system in which they will have 
the same confidence the} 7 have in the national cur- 
rency ; the bank may break, but the bill is good. If 
some statesman rises up with enough practical sense 
to manage this matter, the next generation will 
build him a monument as noble as that which the 
people of England have built in honor of the father 
of cheap postage. 

THE COTTON EXPOSITION, 

now progressing in Atlanta, symbolizes, in a most 
instructive way, to people who see and think, the 



366 



The New South 



vast changes that are coming into the industrial and 
social system of the South. A Boston Yankee, Mr. 
Edward Atkinson, suggested it; another Yankee, 
whom we have adopted and made our own, Mr. H. 
I. Kimball, pushed it through. Many thanks to 
these gentlemen, and all who helped them. The 
Southern people have gone into it most enthusiast- 
ically, and the more hopeful believe that this Expo- 
sition of the resources of the country opens fairly 
the new era that is to make the South truly prosper- 
ous, and that is to bless the whole country. 

It is impressive and inspiring to look upon the 
multitudes that throng the Exposition buildings and 
grounds. They are there from all sections of our 
great Union — the men of the North and the men 
of the South mingling happily together — talking 
cotton and all manner of business — asking nothing 
of each other's politics. 

COTTON-FACTORY VS. PRESIDENT, 

The fact is, the Southern people are marvelously 
stirred up about their business interests at this time. 
An old Democrat at the Exposition, some days ago, 
said with some emphasis of language: "I would 
rather see another big cotton -factory in Atlanta 
than to elect a Democratic President of the United 
States." That was putting the case strongly. There 
may be a stray Democrat in Tremont Temple to- 
day. It may occur to him that the Atlanta man — 
as Bishop Foster's people would say — has "back- 
slidden." But let me suggest to the Democrats of 
New England, before they condemn him too severely: 



From a Southern Stand-point. 



867 



We Democrats down South have been trying rather 
diligently for about sixteen years to secure a Dem- 
ocratic President, and we have had poor success. 
Whenever the Democrats of the North get ready to elect 
one of that faith and order, let them proceed, and we will 
help them. 

PYRAMID ON THE WRONG END. 

In the matter of education we of the South have 
much to learn and much to do. We are behind in 
these interests, It was inevitable with our past his- 
tory. Our better people feel it keenly, and are do- 
ing their utmost to mend matters. 

It is not just to say that we have lacked interest 
in education. Before the war the South had more sons 
and daughters in college than the North had. Our 
mistake was, we tried to stand the pyramid on its apex; 
we neglected the common school. 

Our common schools are not efficient, but they 
are improving. For the most part our system is 
good, but we lack money. Our States are not able 
to spend as much as the richer States of the North 
and West. But we are able to do better than we 
do, and we are going to do it, for the people are de- 
manding it. It will not be long till an elementary 
English education is made available to all the chil- 
dren of the South — white and black alike. 

COLLEGES IN THE SOUTH. 

I have been asked about our colleges. They are 
better than you suppose. Many of them have com- 
petent faculties, and do thorough and honest work. 
With few exceptions our colleges lack endowments 



368 



The New South 



and the resources they bring. Few of them are 
equipped with libraries, apparatus, museums, as 
they should be. You ask why? I answer: L Much 
of the South is a new and thinly settled country. 
2. In the older parts of the South, where in former 
times there was money, the idea of endowing col- 
leges had small place in the minds of those who 
had it. 3. Since 1865 our people have not had the 
money to do it. 

The South is looking up, the people are getting 
on their feet again; but there is little money in the 
South in masses. The great endowments which 
have made your colleges and universities strong and 
famous did not come out of the pockets of the poor, 
or even from small and well-to-do farmers. Was a 
great endowment ever raised by the small contribu- 
tions of the thousands? No; they come by the 
thousands of the few. For the college men and 
women of the South I will say, They deserve honor 
for their heroic efforts to do their work in spite of 
their poverty 

LIVING ON EIGHT DOLLARS A MONTH 

My position as President of one of the oldest 
Southern colleges brings me into 2onstant com- 
munication with young men in all parts of the 
South. 

Nothing is plainer than that there is a constantly 
widening and deepening feeling of intense desire 
among our young men for higher education. There 
are more than sixty in Emory College working their way 
and living on eight dollars a month. (There will be 



From a Southern Stand-point. 369 



nearly one hundred in the coming term.) [Decem- 
ber, 1882, more than one hundred.'] Our young women 
share this feeling of noble aspiration. You will un- 
derstand what it signifies when I tell you there were 
never so many young men in college from the farms as now. 
There is brain and backbone in them. They will 
win and be heard from in the golden day that is 
beginning to dawn upon us. Some day they will 
help you make this country what it ought to be. 

THE SOUTH AND POLITICS. 

I wish to say a word about the South and poli- 
tics. I know not what the professionals will think 
of what I say. Jfor am I overconcerned about it, 
as I have no favors to ask, nor have my kinsfolk. 
I doubt, indeed, if they understand me. In their 
lines there are no shrewder men. But their lines 
are narrow — they are party lines. When a man is 
looking straight at an office, there is not much else 
that he can see. The " signs of the times" hung 
out in the higher skies are invisible to him; he 
could not see the sign of Constantine itself. 

I claim no prophetic insight, but a man who is 
not a candidate for any thing may see and hear 
some things hidden from him whose soul is hun- 
gering and thirsting for office. And I venture 
to say: 

The great body of the Southern people are grown veiy 
weary of geographical and sentimental politics. 

The political leaders they are looking for, and 
that they are ready to follow, are the men who can 
do something that has sense and substance in it; 
24 



370 



The New South 



who can so attend to the business of the country 
as to give it the fairest chance and the best devel- 
opment. They are weary of declamations; they 
are tired to death of controversy; they want peace, 
the development of their industries, and the build- 
ing up of their civilization. And it will go hard 
with them, or they will have .what they want. 
Moreover, it will go hard with party leaders and 
bosses who seek to hinder them. Hinderauces that 
they cannot overcome they are going to throw off; 
bonds they cannot untie they are going to break. 

WHY WE PRAYED FOR PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

Thanking you for your generous attention, I wish 
to tell you now the secret of the deeply sincere and 
universal interest of the Southern people in Presi- 
dent Garfield. They recognized his true greatness, 
and respected him ; they saw in him a certain lofti- 
ness of chivalric sentiment, and were drawn to him; 
they looked on his sufferings, and sympathized with 
him; they beheld his fortitude, and admired him; 
they believed in his religion, and trusted him. But 
the real secret of their interest in him was this: 
After the smoke and fury of the canvass had cleared, 
and they saw him in the bright sunlight, they rec- 
ognized in him a splendid embodiment of the true 
American idea of this country. They believed that 
he intended to give the country a true national ad- 
ministration, from which they were not expecting favors, 
only justice and a fair chance. While he yet lingered 
in suffering, millions of prayers were offered by our 
people — in the great congregations and in humble 



From a Southern Stand-point. 371 



prayer-meetings; in the houses of the rich and in 
the lowly cabins of the poor. They trembled on 
the lips of the eloquent, and they were offered in 
the supplications of the untutored negro. And these 
prayers of men — of races and, nations — were answered. 
For the hearts of the people were brought nearer 
together than they had been for fifty years. As it 
seems to me, James A. Garfield did, in the provi- 
dence of God, more to heal the bleeding wounds of 
his country than all others had done since the ac- 
cursed war began. 

It icas worth dying for to have done such a work. 

And now, if you men of the North and we men of the 
South allow party bosses of any party or section to undo 
it all, we will deserve the wrath of God and the indig- 
nation of men. 

THE MEN OF WAR AT PEACE. 

There was a scene in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last 
September, that symbolized truly the spirit that 
animates the hearts of nearly all of the old Confed- 
erate soldiers and inspires the hearts of the young 
men of the New South. (Our implacables are those 
who helped to bring on the war and then criticised 
its generals from the bomb-proofs of their exemp- 
tion.) The survivors of the Confederate Army of 
the Tennessee held a reunion, to which they invited 
the survivors of the Union Army of the Tennessee. 
Many of the bravest veterans — officers and men — 
of these two great armies met together. Missionary 
Eiclge looked down upon them; Chattanooga was 
close by; each registered a defeat and a victory. 



372 



The New South. 



These veterans — the wearers of the blue and the 
gray — joined their hands in raising our country's 
starry flag over the scenes of their festivity. "With 
equal devotion would they die under that flag in 
defending its honor or in protecting and preserving 
the perpetual union of these States. 



THE NEGRO A CITIZEN. 

[A SPEECH.-] 



MR. PRESIDENT, I never saw the day since 
Christ converted me that my heart did not 
warm toward any good cause that in its plans and 
efforts took in the whole human race. The Ameri- 
can Missionary Association represents such a cause, 
and I am grateful for the privilege of taking some 
small part in this anniversary meeting. And I am 
the more glad because this meeting is held in the 
city where Garfield, our President, awaits the resur- 
rection of the just. 

President Hayes did a good work for the South, 
for which history will give him due credit. It was 
this: He let the South alone, that the storm-rocked 
sea might calm itself. And President Grarfield, liv- 
ing, dying, and dead, awoke within the hearts of 
the Southern people the throbs of a profounder na- 
tional sentiment than they had felt in twenty years. 

It is becoming that I should speak this evening 
of that part of your work which I understand best, 
your work in the Southern States; and of that part 
of it which I know best, your work among the ne- 
groes. Any work of importance, as to its extent, 

* Delivered before the American Missionary Association, in 
Cleveland, Ohio, October 26, 1882. 

(373) 



374 The Negro a Citizen, 



methods, or designs, done among the negroes must 
arouse interest in all thinking minds. For the ne- 
gro has been in America two hundred and sixty 
years; there are not far from seven million of them 
in the United States to-day, and nearly all of them 
are in the Southern States. At the close of our war 
for independence there were in the United States 
about seven hundred thousand negroes. Within a 
century they have multiplied ten times. How many 
will they be by 1982? To speak in round numbers, 
the increase of the total population of this country 
from 1870 to 1880— as the last census shows — was 
thirty per cent. The increase of the white popula- 
tion, aided largely as it was by immigration, was 
twenty-eight per cent.; the increase in the negro 
population, unaided by immigration, was thirty-four 
per cent. It is only very foolish people who can be 
indifferent to such facts; thoughtful people will con- 
sider of them. 

Visionaries and " cranks " may dream and declaim 
about solving the problem of their future and ours, 
by getting them somehow out of this country. But 
if it were desirable or practicable to transport them, 
they are born faster than whole navies could move 
them. And it is as undesirable as it is impractica- 
ble. They are here to stay, and, so far as men can 
see, for the most part where they now are — in the 
Southern States of this Union. They are now 
nearly one-seventh of our population, and, by the 
providence of God, they are freemen and voters. 

The time has about passed, Mr. President, for the 
North to please itself with eloquent speech concern- 



The Negro a Citizen. 



375 



ing their emancipation, and for the South to fret 
itself with fervent denunciation concerning their 
enfranchisement. It were wiser and more profita- 
ble for the people of both sections to accept the 
facts of a most difficult question, to discuss the is- 
sues of 1882, and, in a business-like way, to do our 
best to make the most of them. As to the now 
dominant sentiment in the South, nobody who has 
good sense wants them back in slavery, and the 
South, you may depend upon it, will never consent 
for the ballot to be taken from them. Everybody 
knows that when they received the ballot en masse 
they were utterly unprepared for it. As a class, 
they had just three ideas concerning the ballot when 
it was given to them: 1. They looked upon it as 
the symbol of their freedom; this, perhaps, did them 
some good. 2. They received it as a special mark 
of the love borne to them by the people of the 
North; this made them vain of it, and alienated 
them from their white neighbors. 3. Their pre- 
dominant notion was that it was given them to 
keep "the old rebels down;" this spoiled them for 
fair-minded politics. 

You will pardon a single illustration of the new 
voter's capacity for enlightened politics. For nearly 
eight years I have had in my employment a veiy 
worthy colored man, Daniel Martin by name. He 
is about my own age; I trust him fully in all mat- 
ters for which he has capacity; we are much at- 
tached to each other; and, the truth is, we have 
been taking care of each other for a good while. 
He is above the average of his class in character 



376 



The Negro a Citizen. 



and common sense. He can read " coarse print/' 
and can sign his name imperfectly. 

You will miss the point of my illustration unless 
you bear in mind that Martin had steadily voted 
the Republican ticket from the beginning of his 
citizenship to the date of my story. And he so 
votes till this day. 

The day before the Hayes and Tilden election, 
Daniel was plowing in a little field near my house. 
One of the students quizzed him about his views 
and intentions: "How are you. going to vote to- 
morrow, Uncle Daniel?" It is a peculiarity of the 
Southern negro that he never delivers a solemn 
judgment on any subject without coming to a full 
halt in whatever engages him. One consequence is, 
he comes to a great many halts in his work. An- 
other peculiarity of at least the Southern negro is 
that he thinks in metaphor and speaks in parables. 
So Daniel, stopping his horse and sticking his plow 
deeper into the ground, delivered himself as fol- 
lows: 

" Now, Mr. Longstreet, you see I is plowin' dis 
furrow. If I only plow dis furrow I makes dis fur- 
row too deep, an 5 I do n't plow de balance ob de 
patch." 

Mr. Longstreet admitted the force of this state- 
ment. Daniel continued, in answer to the young 
man's questions: 

" I think things is bin gwine on in one way long 
enough; I think dere ought to be a change, whar- 
fore I is gwine to vote for Mr. Hayes to-morrow — 
git up, Bill." 



T^HE NeGRG A OlTI55ENi 



377 



Next day he and I went to our cdunty-town; he 
voted for Hayes, that there might be a change ; I 
voted for Tilden, that there might be a change ; he 
killed my vote, or possibly one of yours, and we 
were " equal before the laW." 

But few of them are now prepared to vote intelli- 
gently; and ballots, whether cast by fair or dark 
hands, deposited by ignorance, are dangerous to free 
institutions. Are not you of the North nearly as 
much concerned in the quality of the negro's ballot 
as we of the South are? TDill recently they voted 
"solid" for the Republican ticket. A few weeks 
ago, in Georgia, the majority of them voted for an 
ex-Confederate brigadier-general, who fought brave- 
ly at the first Manassas, and who fan for Governor as 
an Independent Democrat, receiving, however, the 
whole Republican vote; and thousands of them 
voted for the nominee of the Democratic party, the 
ex-Vice-president of the Confederacy. No white 
man running for office in the South refuses their 
votes, and, so far as I know, their votes ai?e always 
sought when there is any chance to get them. I 
am not sure but that his ignorance makes his ballot 
more dangerous when both parties seek his vote 
than when it was given solid to one. 

In your work in the South, Mr. President, I re- 
joice for many reasons. The reason I now mention 
is this: That work is helping to prepare the negro 
for his duties of a citizen. I can well understand 
how the best and wisest people of the North feel 
most deeply and solemnly the obligation to do this 
work, for they gave him the ballot, and history will 



378 The Negro a Citizen 



not justify that gift unless they do what they can 
to prepare him for its intelligent use. Not now, 
nor during the next generation, can the South do 
this work alone. Unless you continue to help, and 
to help mightily, it cannot be done. 

As to primary education, many in the South— and 
I, for one, agree with them--believe, with our Sen- 
ator Brown, of Georgia, that the national govern- 
ment should come to the rescue, and help the States 
in this work, distributing its aids on the basis of 
illiteracy. This would give the South a large share 
of 64 appropriations" "under the old flag." What 
if it does? The South is a part of the North, and 
the North is a part of the South, if this is a Union 
and a Nation. Slowly but surely, as it seems to me, 
we are beginning to understand our relations to 
each other. Some day we will, it is to be hoped, 
understand one another so well, and agree so amica- 
bly, that the phrases " the North" and " the South " 
shall have only geographical meanings. President 
Arthur— *many thanks to him for this! — made no 
allusion to "the South" in his first message to Con- 
gress. 

If the General Government gives this needed help, 
it will be in the interests of the whole country, al- 
though the Southern States may get, for once, the 
lion's share. For we are a very large part of this 
country; we are in the Union, and intend to stay 
there — if we have to whip somebody in order to 
do it. 

But, in the nature of things, this sort of help must 
be temporary, and, as I suppose, should, like the 



The Negro a Citizen. 



379 



educational work of the State governments, be car- 
ried on, for the most part, in the common schools. 

The thing that must be done, if our work is to 
stand, is to train up among the negroes, as well as 
among the whites, men and women who can teach 
the children of their race — teach them in homes, in 
school-houses, and in churches. This cannot be 
done by the State as it should be done. For if, as 
one has said, the " negroes need educated Christian- 
ity," they need Christianized education in order to 
get it. This the State does not and cannot give. 
To achieve this most desirable and necessary result, 
the school-house and the church must work togeth- 
er. There must be Bibles in the schools that are to 
train teachers among this people, and there must be 
Christian men and women in them who both teach 
and practice religion. 

To train such teachers, as it appears to me, is the 
work you, and others like you, are trying to do. 

You are raising up in those schools men and 
women who, in the years to come, can, will, and 
must teach the children of these people. Hundreds 
of them, trained by you, are doing this now. I say 
must, for Christianized education must, by its in- 
stinctive and divine impulses, perpetuate itself and 
diffuse itself. Christian education, whether in Chris- 
tian or heathen lands, is the most aggressive and 
formative influence that is now shaping the destiny 
of the human race. When you send out from Nash- 
ville, from Atlanta, and from New Orleans, young 
men and young women who are both educated and 
religious, you send into the masses of these untaught 



380 



The Negro a Citizen, 



millions those who must teach them what they have 
learned both from books and from Christ. Again 
I say must, for the spirit that is in an educated 
Christian man or woman is, as the old Methodist 
preachers used to say, "a fire in the bones," and it 
will blaze out. 

The author of the Declaration of Independence 
wrote, it is said, in 1782, this prediction: "Nothing 
is more certainly written in the book of fate than 
that these people are to be free; nor is it less certain 
that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the 
same government." 

It does not surprise me that Mr. Jefferson made 
both of these predictions. As to the first, there was 
at that time in Virginia and other Southern States 
a strong party that favored the emancipation of the 
slaves. As to the second prediction, he had studied 
French philosophy more than he had studied Chris- 
tianity. If this country had been pagan Rome or 
infidel France, the first prediction would have failed 
— they never would have been set free by the will 
of men. Had they been set free, the second predic- 
tion would have been fulfilled, for in a pagan or in- 
fidel country the two races could not be " equally 
free and live in the same government." They would 
not have been set free had this not have been a 
Christian country; as it is a Christian country, the 
two races, " equally free" before the law, can "live 
in the same government," and the problem of their 
free citizenship can be solved. 

But this problem cannot be solved by legislation 
alone. Time has proved the truth of the weighty 



The Negro a Citizen. 



381 



words delivered at your anniversary in 1875, by that 
venerable and great man who was taken to heaven 
last winter — the Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon. At that 
time Dr. Bacon wrote these words: 

"I come to this conclusion: Legislation on the 
part of the national government is no longer to be 
invoked in aid of fundamental reconstruction. At- 
tempts by Congress to employ force for the aboli- 
tion of prejudices and antipathies in social inter- 
course do not help the cause in which the American 
Missionary Association is at work. I use the word 
6 force,' because law enforced is force, and a law 
not enforced is not law. The more completely our 
cause can be henceforth disentangled from all con- 
nection with political parties and agitators the bet- 
ter for its progress. Doubtless there will be more 
legislation by the several States — especially in be- 
half of the great interest of public education for all 
— before the consummation that we hope for shall 
have been attained; but the legislation must be the 
effect and not the cause of that fundamental recon- 
struction which we desire to work for. It will ex- 
hibit and record more than it can inspire or control 
the progress of reformed opinions and better senti- 
ments among the people." 

When the law gives equal opportunities and 
guarantees equal rights to all (and this it must do 
to be worthy of respect), it has done all it can do. 
Foundation-work, of the sort Dr. Bacon had at 
heart, means character-building, and this goes on in 
individuals. Law has its educative force; but to 
lift up a race — whether white, or black, or yellow, 



382 



The Negro a Citizen. 



or red — there must be character-building in individ- 
ual men and women, and to do this work aright we 
must have the church and the school-house. And 
these two must work together, and not against each 
other. 

This sort of foundation-work you are trying to 
do through the American Missionary Association, 
and others like-minded with you are trying to do. 
It has not failed; it cannot fail; it has life in itself. 

Mr. Jefferson's second prediction will fail — it is 
failing now. These two races are equally free, and 
they are living together in the same government 
with less and less of difficulty and misunderstand- 
ing each year. Disturbances here and there, con- 
flicts, acts of violence, there have been, there are, 
and there will be for a time. The wonder is not 
that there was a period of disorder in the Southern 
States after the war. The true wonder is that there 
is now so little of it, and that between 1865 and 
1870 the South did not rush into final and utter 
chaos. 

There was never in any country such a state of 
things — so provocative of universal and remediless 
anarchy. What is it that saved us? Not the troops, 
not acts of Congress. Christian schools and the 
Church of God saved us. It was the Protestant 
religion that dominated the majority both of the 
negroes and of the Southern white people. I 
grant you that the conservative influences that the 
Churches in the South brought out of the war have 
been greatly aided by the work done by your society 
and others like it, but it is also true that but for the 



The Negro a Citizen. 383 



work the Church in the South did before your com- 
ing, you could have done next to nothing by this 
time in the experiment. 

As to this whole subject, full of difficulties as 
those know best who have personal relations to it, 
there is just one platform on which Christian peo- 
ple can stand. Our problem with these millions of 
negroes in our midst can be happily solved, not by 
force of any sort from without the States where 
they live ; no more can it be solved by repression 
within those States. It can be worked out only on the 
basis of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the 
Mount. 

On this platform we can work out any problem 
whatsoever, whether personal, social, political, na- 
tional, or ethnical, that Providence brings before us. 

On any lower or narrower platform we will fail, 
and always fail. 

We have learned, you of the North and we of the 
South, many things in the last ten years. Among 
other valuable discoveries, we have learned that the 
people of neither section are either all good or all 
bad. As to this race question, we people of the 
South have learned, and are learning, that we can- 
not manage our problem by any mere repressive sys- 
tem. The people of the North have learned, and 
they are learning, that it cannot be solved by any 
sort of force from without — whether force of law, 
force of troops, or force of denunciation. Such 
knowledge is precious. Alas that it cost us so 
much ! 

May I quote at this place one other paragraph 



384 The Negro a Citizen, 



from the words of Dr. Leonard Bacon? It is at the 
close of a letter dated " New Haven, October 22, 
1875," and is in these words; 

" May I be allowed to say one word concerning 
the future of this society? That word is concilia- 
tion — conciliation by meekness, by love, by patient 
continuance in well-doing. The field is wide open 
for schools and for the preaching of the gospel, two 
great forces operating as one for fundamental recon- 
struction. In both these lines of effort the work of 
the society must be more and more a work of con- 
ciliation — conciliation of the South to the North 
and to the restored and beneficent Union— concili- 
ation of races to each other, white to black and 
black to white — conciliation of contending sects, 
oppressed with traditional bigotries, to the simplic- 
ity of the truth as it is in Jesus." 

Thomas Jefferson was not a prophet; Leonard 
Bacon was. And thank God so much has been 
done by this association to incarnate the truth that 
was in his great thoughts, and to fulfill his hopes 
and predictions as to its own future. 

"But this work of ' fundamental reconstruction' 
is a slow process," suggests the impatient one. That 
is true; character-building, whether in a man, or in 
a nation, or in a race, is always a slow process. And 
it must be slower in a nation, or in a race, than in 
a man. There was never anj r great work done in 
the uplifting or training of a race in a day, or in a 
year. It takes generations. How slowly our own 
race has risen out of savagery! how unfit we still 
are to fulfill our mission to the world! We have 



The j^egro a Citizen. 



385 



small cause for boasting when white men's votes 
— sometimes enough of them to turn the scale in 
great elections — can be bought cheap in the open 
streets. 

Lifting up a nation or a race is a slow process; 
wherefore the greater necessity for zeal, for wisdom, 
and for patience in our work. Wherever a great 
and necessary work that requires a long time and 
much labor is to be done, we should begin at once 
and do our best. 

You find more sympathy and more of the spirit 
of cooperation among Southern people than you 
found ten years ago. I rejoice in this change of 
feeling in the South, and it is easy to understand it. 
Time, the healer, has done his blessed work. Grace 
has overcome and the grave has buried much of 
bitter feeling on both sides. You have learned your 
work better, and we have learned more perfectly its 
value. 

A good deal of your work I have seen. I be- 
lieve it is good. I have looked into your school 
methods; they are yielding happy results. I have 
considered " examination papers " from some of 
your schools ; they would have done credit to any 
school for any race. I have listened to speeches and 
essays from colored youths at your commencements; 
there was the evidence of sound culture and true re- 
ligion in them. When I heard them, "I thanked 
God and took courage." 

It is often asked, " Why does not the South do 
more in this work of educating and uplifting the 
negroes? " Sometimes the question has been asked 
25 



386 



The Negro a Citizen. 



angrily, perhaps because ignorantly. I believe the 
South can do more than it is doing — certainly more 
than it has done. But I think it likely that we have 
done as much as any other people in like circum- 
stances would have done. History does not record 
of any people such vast, rapid, and radical changes 
of opinion and sentiment on subjects that had been 
fiercely fought over on hundreds of bloody fields as 
have taken place in the South during the last fifteen 
years, on the questions that grew out of the negro's 
emancipation and enfranchisement. 

But the Southern States have done more than 
most people suppose. Nearly one million of negro 
children attend the public schools of the South. 

In considering what the South has done and has 
not done in the work of educating the negroes, let 
it be remembered that the white people of the South 
have not been on beds of roses since 1865. The war 
and its consequents made the South poor beyond 
conception by those who have not had our experi- 
ence. It left the North rich. The majority of our 
people have had a sharp struggle to live; most of 
them have been unable to educate their own chil- 
dren. 

Let me tell you of a man I talked with last sum- 
mer. I went with my family and a little party on 
what we might call a camp-fishing expedition. As 
we approached the place where we proposed to 
spend a few days in recreation, my attention was ar- 
rested by a white woman pulling fodder in a little 
field near a cabin. That night her husband came 
to our camp, offering such welcome as he could. We 



The Negro a Citizen. 



387 



had a long talk together. He had been a Confed- 
erate soldier, and he had on his body the marks of 
seven bullet-wounds. He never owned a slave; he 
had fought for what he had been taught to believe 
w^ere the rights of the States. He is a laborer on 
the farm of the man who owns the land where he 
lives. He gets one hundred and forty dollars a year, 
cabin rent, a few acres tended by his wife and little 
girls, and the privilege of his winter wood. He 
said his employer is one of the kindest of men, and 
does for him all he can do. The landlord himself 
has small margins of profit. The poor fellow has 
five children, the eldest a bright girl aged fourteen; 
she looked dwarfed and older than her years; she 
had been nurse and drudge for the little ones. These 
children came to our camp by invitation, and the 
oldest promised to come one afternoon and show 
Bay children how to fish; she knows the river and 
the ways of the fish. I had my heart set on her 
coming; I wanted my children to know more about 
such people. She did not come at the time ap- 
pointed, but that night she came to tell us why. 
Her cotton dress was wet with the dew, and her lit- 
tle hands were fodder-stained. She said to me: "I 
am sorry I could not come ; mother and I had 
so much fodder to take up that we have just got 
through. 57 

This child and I had much talk together. I asked 
her: "Daughter, can you read?" 

Her face brightened as she answered, "Yes, sir; 
a little." 

" Can you write?" 



388 



The Xegro a Citizen. 



The brown eyes sought the ground as she an- 
swered, "Uo, sir." 

"If I will send you some books, will you try to 
teach your little sisters to read?" 

The glad look in her eyes I will never forget as 
she answered me, " Yes, sir; I will try." 

"We sent her a good supply, and it made them all 
glad. They are not beggars; the father would not 
take money for a tine bunch of lish he sent with his 
compliments to my wife ; and when he found that 
we had left some money for some little services by 
the children, he flushed and could hardly be per- 
suaded to let them keep it. 

Some people call these "white trash ! ? ' I declare 
to you I never heard a Southern white man or 
woman use the expression in speaking of such per- 
sons. 

Mr. President, there are tens of thousands of 
white people in the South as poor as my friend of 
the fishings-camp. If you can help them, in Christ's 
name do it. 

As to our higher schools, some of our best col- 
leges have died since 1865; others are dying. Such 
a death is a loss, not to the South alone; it is a loss 
to the country. Yours have grown rich. I do not 
envy you; I rejoice in your strong and well-fur- 
nished institutions. But you should be patient to- 
ward us, and I am not ashamed to say, you should 
help us as God gives you opportunity. 

Men and brethren, it is time to have done with 
1860-65. The majority of our voters were in their 
cradles in 1860. or have been born since then. Said 



The ^egro a Citizen. 



389 



a Brooklyn man to me last year, who, unsolicited, 
had helped two Southern schools: "I think my 
friends here approve what I have done, but if any 
should ask, 4 Why did you not give this money to 
your own people?' my answer is, They also are my 
people; we are one people." On that platform we 
can become a Christian nation strong enough to bless 
the world. 

Northern money has done much to "develop the 
South " during the last decade, in pushing railroads 
and other great industrial enterprises. It is all 
welcome, and ten times as much. But I clo not 
question that each hundred dollars invested in 
Christian education in the South since the war 
has done more to develop it in every best sense 
than each thousand dollars placed in railroads and 
factories. 

But enough on these lines of thought. I must 
say a word or two as to the relations of your work 
to Africa. The first school-atlas I ever saw made a 
desert of sand cover all the wonderful lands that 
Livingstone, Stanley, and others have discovered, 
and across the map of Africa was printed 28,000,000, 
with an interrogation-point to indicate a guess as to 
the population. Xow we are studying the maps of 
interior Africa, and they tell us of great nations, 
and a population that may reach two hundred 
million. 

Can any man, who believes in the Bible, or in 
God, doubt for one moment that Providence is in 
the history of the negroes in the United States? 
Can we doubt that these millions of negroes now 



390 



The Negro a Citizen. 



committed to us, as the wards of the Christian 
Church, must, some day, attempt and accomplish 
the evangelization of Africa? 

I rejoice that your association has its eye and 
heart on Africa. I saw two photographs in the chapel 
of Fisk University last May that stirred my soul. 
They were the faces of two missionaries who had gone 
from that great Christian school to the Dark Conti- 
nent. One Sunday evening I preached in the chap- 
el. A youth from your Mendi Mission, a native of 
Africa, getting ready in Fisk to be a missionary, 
sung for us, in his home language, a familiar Sun- 
day-school song, "I have a Father in the Promised 
Land." Some day they will be singing Christian 
songs in every village in Africa. How the thought 
of the Divine fatherhood and of the brotherhood of 
the Eternal Son has changed Europe and made 
America! Some day these thoughts will change 
Africa too. What we call civilization cannot do it; 
the gospel can. 

The Christian negroes are getting ready for their 
work, and you and others working in the same field 
are helping them to get ready. The missionary fire 
is beginning to burn in their hearts. When they 
go forth, bearing the sacred symbol of our Lord's 
love to men, every Christian man and woman in our 
land should help them. That movement — and it is 
coming at no distant day — will give your missionary 
and colonization societies all they can do. 

Wa*s there ever a greater need or a more hope- 
ful field? a greater duty or a higher promise of 
success? 



The Negko a Citizen. 



391 



Mr. President, you may be sure that from thou- 
sands of Christian hearts all over the South the 
prayer goes up : " God bless the work of the 
American Missionary Association, with all others 
who are preaching the gospel to the poor!'' 



THE MUSTARD-SEED AND THE LEAVEN. 



[OXFORD, (jA., NOVEMBER 19, 1882,] 



"Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom 
of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took, and 
sowed in his field : which indeed is the least of all seeds ; but when 
it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so 
that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. 
Another parable spake he unto them : The kingdom of heaven is 
like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of 
meal, till the whole was leavened." Matt. xiii. 31-33. 

HAD our Lord spoken only the parables of the 
Sower and of the Tares, there might have 
sprung up a doubt as to the final triumph of his 
saving truth. The parables of the Mustard-seed 
and of the Leaven come to reassure our faith. And 
they are as fresh and true to-day as when Jesus de- 
livered them, for the natural miracles of growth are 
being wrought every day, and nature expounds the 
supernatural now not only as in the beginning, but 
far more lucidly and eloquently. For every truth 
that science finds in nature is a truth of God, and 
belongs to his children. The parables of our text 
are distinct in their form and in their lessons, but 
the spiritual laws they unfold and illustrate are so 
related that neither could be true without the other. 

(392) 



The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 393 



They belong to each other as surely as the two 
motions of the heart are essential to each other. 

Our Lord says, " The kingdom of God cometh 
not with observation." This the parable of the 
Leaven sets forth. But, in a true sense, this king- 
dom does come with observation; we see its work 
and progress in the world, and this the parable 
of the Mustard-seed illustrates. As Dean Trench 
says: " The parable of the Leaven sets forth the 
power and action of the truth on the world brought 
in contact with it; the parable of the Mustard-seed 
the power of the truth to develop itself from within 
itself — how it is as the tree shut up within the seed, 
which will unfold itself according to theimvard law 
of its own being. Both have .this in common, that 
they describe the small and slight beginnings, the 
gradual progress, and the final marvelous progress 
of the Church." 

The parable of the Mustard-seed declares the ex- 
tensive, that of the Leaven the intensive, develop- 
ment of the gospel. 

The statement in the parable as to the size of the 
mustard-seed is in proverbial form ; it was not in- 
tended to be scientifically precise. (It illustrates the 
contemptible spirit of a class of infidels that they 
gravely object that there are really some seeds, as 
tobacco-seeds for example, that are not so large as 
mustard-seed!) The illustration is introduced not 
to show how small the seed was, or how large its 
growth, but the proportion between the smallness 
of the seed and the greatness of the plant. One 
such herb might well produce a million of mustard- 



394 The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 



seeds, each as large as the first, to say nothing of 
roots, and stalks, and branches, and leaves — all to- 
gether containing a mass so many times larger than 
the seed that the figures which express it would 
only bewilder us could we at all ascertain them. 
Our Lord's comparison is the ultimate glories of 
his kingdom compared with what to the eye of 
sense, or to mere worldly wisdom, were such utterly 
insignificant beginnings. 

What was there then to be seen ? This Galilean 
Teacher and the little company of obscure friends, 
more or less devoted to him. What were the great 
things in the world then, of the sort that were to be 
seen? In learning, art$ and philosophy, Athens; 
in conquering power, Rome; in ecclesiastical organ- 
ization and influence, such a Church as that which 
the scribes and Pharisees controlled. If you look 
at this mustard-seed, what you see is very small — a 
little round and altogether insignificant- looking 
black thing. What you do not see is its secret of 
life that is locked up in its heart. The microscope 
will show layer upon layer down to what seems to 
be nothing, but there is a cell-form there with life 
in it. And much more; it is a life that imparts and 
perpetuates life in an infinitely widening series. 
Give the little seed a chance — soil, heat, air, moist- 
ure — and it will grow more seeds, small and dead as 
it seems, than there are grains of sand in the globe, 
or drops of water in the seas. 

And the gospel — that is, Christ and his truth — is 
a seed that has " life in itself/' It is small at its be- 
ginnings, as all the works of God are, so far as we 



The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 395 



see or know them. (As also are the works of men 
that are good for any thing.) Look about you and 
see. The great oak was once a small acorn; the 
smaU acorn was once wrapped up in a very small 
bud, and that bud was once invisible in its small- 
ness. So of all forms of life. If you would trace 
the progress and seek the genesis of any life-forms, 
you will presently reach a point where the micro- 
scope itself is blind. 

We are slow to learn the parables of nature that 
God sets before us day by day. The ambitions of 
men sometimes seek to launch great schemes proud- 
ly and upon a vast scale to begin with. But things 
great at first do not abide. The mythologic conceit 
of Minerva, full-grown and full-armed at the first, 
violates both nature and philosophy. Just here, as 
a lesson both of patience and hope — a lesson good 
for men as well as boys — I am going to read you a 
lesson from one of George MacDonald's novels, 
" Weighed and Wanting." Two persons in the 
story were talking of the need of helpful work 
among the wretchedly poor of London. (You young 
men, who have had the rare good fortune to have 
been brought up on farms in the country, cannot un- 
derstand what is meant when men talk of the pov- 
erty and wretchedness of garret and cellar life in 
the great cities.) Hester Raymount, a grand Christ- 
woman, was almost in despair because she could do 
so little; her faith was nearly paralyzed, for she had 
been brooding over the magnitude of the work that 
needed to be done more than she had been meditat- 
ing upon the power that was in Christ to help her 



396 The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 



do such part of the work as he had committed to 
her. She was talking sadly enough one day with 
Doctor Christopher, who was also trying to do good. 
He had money enough, but had learned medicine to 
help him in a work to which he felt that God had 
called him. (It is very strange to me that, for the 
most part, only those who " preach " feel " called; " 
I believe God " calls " every one.) Hester envied 
the good Doctor his power and opportunity; so one 
day she said to him: 

" Is it not delightful to know that you can start 
any thing when you please? 07 

The wise worker for the Master made answer: 
"Anybody with leisure can do that, who is will- 
ing to begin where every thing ought to be begun — 
that is, at the beginning. Nothing worth calling 
good can or ever will be started full-grown. The 
essential of any good is life, and the very body of 
created life, and essential to it, being itself operant, 
is growth. The larger start you make the less room 
you leave for life to extend itself. You fill with the 
dead matter of your construction the places where 
assimilation ought to have its perfect work, build- 
ing by a life-process, self-extending and subserving 
the whole. Small beginnings with slow growings 
have time to root themselves thoroughly. I do 
not mean in place, nor yet in social regard, but in 
wisdom. Such even prosper by failures, for their 
failures are not too great to be rectified without 
injury to the original idea. God's beginnings are 
imperceptible, whether in the region of soul or 
matter." 



The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 397 



What is the essential life of the gospel-seed? It 
is not merely the doctrine that Jesus taught; it is 
certainly not the Church he planted upon the earth; 
least of all is it any outward Church-form, whether 
expressed in a creed, a polity, or a ritual. Jesus 
Christ is himself the very " mustard-seed " th at sym- 
bolizes the life that is in the gospel. "In him was 
life." 

I mean this : If it had been possible for any think- 
er to have constructed an ideal character that yet 
never lived, and to have put into his mouth every 
word that Jesus ever spoke, these words would not 
have had life in themselves. If any thinker could 
have constructed a philosophy of life that should 
have contained in it every single truth that Jesus 
ever taught, then such a philosophy would have 
had no life (of a sort that saves sinful men) in itself. 
" I am the truth," Jesus said. What makes his 
spoken truth a living and saving truth is his own 
life. Truth that has life-seed in it must, somehow, 
become incarnate; it must be lived by a person, and, 
if it is to save men, it must be lived by a man. 
There is no stronger impression made upon us when 
we read the gospels than this: Jesus lived all he 
taught. And herein is a lesson for us every one, in 
our sphere and measure of living. The truth we 
live is our truth that has life-seed in it. It is not 
the truth in our words, in our creeds, it is the truth 
in our lives that is self-propagating. One who does 
not live his true doctrine may indeed give good ad- 
vice; a man who lives his truth cannot fail of use- 
fulness. Illustrations abound. Whether we preach 



398 The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 



purity, or integrity, or benevolence, the important 
and vital thing is that we live the truth we teach. 

"What does history say to this parable of the Mus- 
tard-seed? We need not go far into the answer to- 
day. But the seed, once so small that the great 
ones of our Lord's time took no account of it, has 
grown into " a great tree." All the best things in 
the world to-day gather about it, feed upon it, and 
are sheltered by it. What a space it fills! It is in 
our laws, customs, literature, science, philosophy, 
art; it is in all of our civilization that is good; and, 
if we look about us and beyond us, we see it spread- 
ing always and everywhere. If we look into the 
future of our race, we see that all that has good and 
hope in it is vitally joined to the life of this seed 
and the growing of this tree. 

x The parable of the Leaven also shows the mar- 
velous increase of the kingdom of Christ; but while 
the parable of the Mustard-seed shows its outward 
and visible development — yet emphasizing the truth 
that this outward growth is from within — this of 
the Leaven declares the hidden, mysterious processes 
by which saving truth does its work in the world. 
It teaches what the first does, but it goes farther; 
it not only shows the increase and development from 
within ; it not only illustrates the marvelous increase 
of what, in its beginnings, was so small; it also 
shows how the gospel changes into its own qualities 
whatever it lays hold upon. 

Let us trace briefly some of the analogies sug- 
gested by the figure. 

1. The leaven, or yeast, is different from the lump 



The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 399 



of meal. It is brought to it from without. So the 
gospel truth is not by humanity self-evolved. In 
its origin it is not of this world; it is not a product 
of the fermentation of philosophy. The kingdoms 
Daniel saw in the prophetic visions "rose out of the 
earth;" they belonged to this world. The king- 
dom of Christ, which John saw, "descended from 
God out of heaven.' 3 Our Lord himself said, " My 
kingdom is not of this world. 1 ' Christ Jesus, with 
his incarnate truth, came into the inert mass of hu- 
manity as a new and quickening power ; a center of 
life around which all of good in man, and all of 
good the gospel itself awakens, forms and gathers, 
as around one little yeast-cell millions more are 
formed " till the whole is leavened/' 

2. The leaven and the meal have affinity for each 
other; yeast cannot work in substances not in affin- 
ity with it. Yeast cannot work in a mass of plas- 
ter of Paris, or powdered chalk; a small quantity 
of sulphuric and of some other acids immediately 
arrests its processes. The gospel is ' leaven in hu- 
manity because it finds its affinity in man. And it 
has affinity for humanity because it is the gospel of 
"the Son of man." There might have been all the 
truth, so far as words go, that there is in the gospel, 
but it would not have been leaven in humanity had 
the eternal Logos taken the form of an angel, or of 
any other creature but man, for his manifestation. 
" He took not on him the nature of angels, but the 
seed of Abraham." " He was made like unto his 
brethren;" so like them that "he was tempted iu 
all points like as we are, yet without sin." Where- 



400 The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 



fore the apostle adds: "In that he suffered, being 
tempted, he is able also to succor them that are 
tempted/*' Jesus Christ brings to man that which 
he needs for his completion. The "kingdom of 
heaven" is the renewal and exaltation of humanity 
by the righteous man, Jesus Christ. 

3. To use the words of Chrysostom: 

" That which is once leavened becomes leaven to 
the rest; since as the spark, when it takes hold of 
wood, makes that which is already kindled to trans- 
mit the flame, and so seizes still upon more, thus it 
is also With the preaching of the word." 

In the leaven it is a cell that produces another, 
and from this others proceed in an infinite series. 
The scientists — Heaven prosper their search in all 
God's works! — are finding out more and more about 
" cells." They have found out that there are cells 
where there is life. 

AVhat is a cell? It is a lar^e and difficult discus- 
sion, and needs a specialist for its elucidation. Take 
a small particle of common yeast and place it under 
a microscope. You will see a multitude of minute 
esfg-shaped bodies, not more than " one two hun- 
dred and fiftieth part of an inch in diameter." Pres- 
ently these minute egg-shaped bodies, so very small 
as we have seen, begin to throw out from their in- 
conceivably thin sides — what one would call a shell 
if it were not so thin that it seems to be almost a 
mere nothing, as if it were the shadow of the least 
and thinnest something in the world — little buds, 
still smaller than the cells and with thinner disks, 
that presently grow into cells of full size; and from 



The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 401 



these more and more infinitely. Leaven diffuses it- 
self by cells: plants grow by cells; so do animals. 
So does every thing visible by our eyes or by our 
microscopes grow and form its hidden beginnings to 
its largest development. 

As the leaven-cells spread through the dough, so 
the truth of Christ, if there be no hinderance, hid in 
the heart, spreads throughout the soul and spirit 
and life of a man, and throughout the whole mass 
of humanity. And always where there is not re- 
sistance. Here is the difference: the meal is pas- 
sive, but human volition may prevent or arrest the 
processes of truth. And let me emphasize this that 
lias already been alluded, to: as the life of the gos- 
pel is in the life of the Christ who lived it, so its as- 
similating power, so far as you and I are related to 
its spread among men. is in the truth we live — that 
we make incarnate. Mere creeds, however perfect, 
do not leaven men: the gospel lived does. 

4. What the gospel leaven does it does in persons, 
in individual men and women and' children. There 
is no such thing as " leavening society," considered 
as something other than the whole number of per- 
sons who compose it. If we conceive of the truth 
as leavening " the whole lump" of humanity, we 
must remember that it does this only as it works its 
blessed results in individuals. Thus, if it be said of 
a certain town, " This town has improved greatly un- 
der religious influences, ?? what is the truth in the 
case? Just this: that Smith, and Jones, and Brown, 
and the rest, are better men. If now we ask how 
the truth leavens these persons, I answer, fc * Through 



402 The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 

other persons who have been leavened, and so on 
back to the men whose lives were leavened by 
Christ, by contact with him by living faith." If I 
may use the word — and why not, since He uses the 
natural fact to illustrate his truth? — Jesus Christ is 
the original spiritual cell from which grew every oth- 
er of untold millions. 

What you and I need just now to think of is this: 
It is not the Church, as a corporate body or society, 
that does any good in this world, but the persons 
in it. I read you more gospel truth from MaeDon- 
ald's novel, "Weighed and Wanting." It is fresh 
on my thoughts; I was reading it but last week, on 
the cars. He says in one place: 

"How the devil would have laughed at the idea 
of a society for saving the world ! But when he saw 
One take it in hand, One who was in no haste even to 
do that; One who would only do the will of God 
with all his heart and soul, and cared for nothing 
else, then indeed he might tremble for his kingdom! 
It is the individual Christians, forming the Church 
by their obedient individuality, that have done all 
the good done since men, for the love of Christ, be- 
gan to gather together. It is individual ardor alone 
that can kindle into larger flame. There is no true 
power but that which has individual roots. Neither 
custom, nor law, nor habit, nor foundation, is a root. 
The real roots are individual conscience that hates 
evil, and individual faith that loves and obeys God, 
individual heart with its kiss of charity." 

The spiritual power of this Church at Oxford is 
just and only what the personal spiritual power is. 



The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 403 



5. What the gospel leaven does for us it must 
first of all do in the hidden places of our hearts. It 
must be hid in the innermost recesses of our nature. 
It is not a matter of mere external conformity to 
certain conventional observances, or even what are 
called duties. Its true working is in the heart; its 
results are that we are, in our thoughts and loves, 
assimilated to Christ, the original cell of all spiritual 
life. 

Let me ask you now to make some sharp test of 
yourselves. Let each one search diligently his own 
heart. Are you being leavened by the truth that is 
in Jesus? The ruling love determines. What is it 
that you love most? Is it gold? or fame? or pow- 
er? or pleasure? or is it the truth of Christ ? 

6. We have in both parables the time-element, not 
as accidental but essential in God's plans and deal- 
ings with men. This also is in accordance with 
every analogy of nature; and nature cannot lie or 
preach a false or contradictory gospel. Many oth- 
er parables and many words our Lord uses recog- 
nize the time-element in Christian life. The very 
terms that inspiration uses to express the origin and 
processes of spiritual life imply the time-element, 
and they are without meaning if it be denied. If 
not, what mean such words as " quickened," " con- 
ceived," "born/ 3 "babes," "grow," and many more 
like them, as applied to the genesis and experiences 
of religion ? 

The principle of which I now speak is as uni- 
versal as it is important. STo change in place or 
condition can take place instantaneously. Light, 



404 The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 



though it is so swift, requires time. It takes time 
for the nerves to report to the brain a hurt upon 
the finger. Astronomers recognize in their calcu- 
lation what they call the " personal equation " of 
observers of the heavenly bodies. It is short time, 
but it is time. A whale seventy-two feet long re- 
quires, it has been determined, a full second for his 
brain to know that a spear-point has pierced his tail. 

It is almost too obvious and commonplace to say 
that whatever has life must grow, and that growth 
requires time, not as an accident, nor as an arbitra- 
ry, but as an essential, condition. This law prevails 
in intellectual and spiritual even more than it pre- 
vails in vegetable and animal life. 

We need not question it; the time-element enters 
by a natural and, I may say (since God has so ar- 
ranged the constitution of his universe), a divine ne- 
cessity into religious life. It is folly and fanaticism 
to deny this law, written upon every thing that 
lives, recognized in the Holy Scriptures, and pres- 
ent in our very consciousness. There never was a 
child of God who did not, if faithful, ripen as years 
passed over him. Moses did; and Paul, and Wes- 
ley, and Juclson, and Livingstone — and, I say it most 
reverently, so did the man Jesus. It is said of him : 
"The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled 
with wisdom ; and the grace of God was upon hhn." 

Moreover, much in Christian character depends 
not merely upon what we believe, upon what we 
feel, upon what is done in us, but upon what we do; 
perhaps much more upon what we suffer — and this 
requires time. 



The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 405 



If you ask about the processes by which a Chris- 
tian is to approach perfection — -and let us always re- 
member that it is to be an eternal approaching — I 
answer, "It is not a question only as to what God 
can do, but a question chiefly as to what it actually 
pleases him to do/ 5 And we see it pleases him to 
make time one of the conditions of the process, as 
the parables of the Mustard-seed and of the Leaven, 
as all nature, and all common sense, and all obser- 
vation, and all experience, that can give articulate 
and rational expression to itself, set forth and con- 
firm. The question is not whether God, by his al- 
mighty Spirit, can make a man, by one given spir- 
itual act, as good as he can be, but whether he chooses 
that way. I say — his word and his works being 
witnesses- — he does never, in such a case, choose any 
instantaneous method. Having made man as he has 
made him, he could not so choose. And why not? 
For two reasons that involve each other. First: 
Character is conditioned on volition, and cannot be 
created in any such sense as a world may be created. 
Secondly: The whole gospel scheme is one of co- 
operation — God and man working together — and 
this requires time. 

It is fanaticism of a very meager and blind sort to 
conclude that by any so-called " act of faith" any 
man can achieve instantly what requires time, and 
for the reason that it requires time to live and to do 
and suffer the will of God. 

Men talk of the moment of conversion. What do 
they mean by that? I grant you that, in strictness 
of thought, there must be an instant when spiritual 



406 The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 



life begins in a man's soul, just as there was an in- 
stant when both bodily and spiritual life began in 
the darkness where God fashioned wonclrously the 
child conceived and not for a long time yet to be 
born — a moment when that was which just now was 
not. But no science can absolutely fix that point 
of time, or eternity — which should I say? There is 
an instant when that life, so unsearchable in its be- 
ginnings, manifested itself; but there is no search- 
ing that can determine just when that life began to 
be. But the main question is, Is there life? 

There are some ill-informed persons, who think 
loosely and know not the force of words, who are 
disposed to say, " If one does not know the very 
time and place of his spiritual new birth, then he has 
had no spiritual new birth." This is folly, pure and 
simple. It is true, indeed, that many do know when 
they first realized in consciousness the " quicken- 
ings" of the new life in the soul, but there is no 
man, who understands what he is talking about, who 
can, on the dial-plate of his spiritual history, put his 
finder on the very figure that marks the hour when 
he began to exist in religious or spiritual life. 

One says, " On such a day and hour, and at such 
a place, I was converted." It is no more than to 
saj^, " On such a clay and hour, and at such a place, 
I was born." That does not determine when or 
where the new being really was first a being, a person. 

This 19th day of November is, as we say, my birth- 
day. That is, forty-three years ago I came into this 
world "with observation," and began to occupy a 
place among those who were counted in census ta- 



The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 407 



bles. But I was a person that God counted before 
that day. I have known of two very good men, 
each one saying " he was spiritual father to me." 
Why? Forsooth, because they chanced to be about 
when I stepped forth one Sunday morning, in July, 
1854, and joined the visible Church! How absurd! 
Where were they when the renewing Spirit, by the 
saving leaven of divine truth, fashioned my spirit- 
ual life in the secret places deep clown in and deeper 
down below my own conscious thoughts? 

The difference is just this : the consciousness of 
this new spiritual life in the soul is vivid as light- 
ning and pronounced as thunder in some, so that 
they do know the hour and spot where they first 
knew that they were beginning to live in Christ 
Jesus ; in others this consciousness comes gradually 
and gently as the dawn of a cloudless day. 

Now, if any careless hearer infers that because I 
say the time-element enters into the divine methods 
of perfecting religious character that therefore I set 
forth a lower standard of religious aspiration and 
religious living, I tell him, " Nay, brother, you do 
not even know what I am talking about. I am 
talking of a spiritual life so deep and high that your 
definitions do not measure it." 

, I will use no past tense. I will never say Christ 
has done his work in this or that man; I will say, 
Christ is doing his work in this man. And this 
Christ will do through all eternity, if he have his 
way with him. No man will fairly understand 
what I am now talking about, w r ho, by any thought, 
or wish, or plan, or hope of life, consciously and de- 



408 The Mustard-seed and the Leaven. 



liberately opposes the working of the Christ leaven 
in his heart and life. I believe that the richest and 
sweetest of all the beatitudes is this : " Blessed are 
they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; 
for they shall be tilled/' Filled, but never sated. 
This hunger, this thirst, are immortal. That which 
feeds increases the divine pang of spiritual hunger. 

7. " Till the whole be leavened.'' This is a word 
of promise and prophecy. The leavening has been 
going on since God gave to men the first w r ord of 
truth — before Jesus was born and ever since that 
hallowed hour. Before Jesus, all that God did was 
the preparation; since he came, all that is w 7 orth re- 
membering is the history. It is the leaven of Jesus 
that changed Europe, that has made America, that 
is making Madagascar, India, the islands of the sea, 
China, and Africa. 

What hosts of croaking frogs we hear sometimes. 
"Alas for the Church! " croak they. "Alas for the 
times ! the world is getting worse; ' the former days 
were better than these.' " There never was a great- 
er lie, or a meaner libel on Divine Providence. 

Worse, indeed! Who are we? Descendants of 
savages. Compare the times now and only one hun- 
dred or one hundred and fifty years ago. Take for 
illustration a special case, where many cases might 
be offered. Consider England and Ireland. It is 
bad enough now; but how T different the attitude and 
spirit of the Government now and one hundred 
years ago! Compare the methods undertaken by 
Gladstone — that noblest figure in public life to-day 
in the whole w r orld — in the pacification of Ireland 



The Mustard^seed and the Leaven* 409 



and the methods of prime-ministers a century ago. 
We see this man . simply and grandly trying to do 
right ; we read history, and see those of former gen- 
erations robbing and slaying without emotions of 
pity or pretense of justice. 

This Christ-leaven is working its way through 
the whole lump. It has worked out of civilization 
legalized slavery; it is working out all despotisms, 
despotism of governments and of ignorance. It is 
working out the savagery th»at still lingers in civil- 
ization, and the superstitions and fanaticisms that 
still linger in the Church. 

May it work all sin out of you and me! 

Our Lord says, " Till the whole be leavened." 
How deep a word is this to your conscience and 
mine! Not a belief, not a feeling, but the whole 
man is to be leavened. The man in his loves and 
hates, his joys and griefs, in his plans and aspira- 
tions. The man in his whole life, at the anvil as 
well as at the sacrament ; in his savings and spend- 
ings, as well as in his prayers and songs. 

We are to be all Christ's — all and forever. We 
may conclude with the prayer of St. Ambrose : 

" May the holy Church, which is figured under 
the type of this woman in the gospel, whose meal 
are we, hide the Lord Jesus in the innermost places 
of our hearts till the warmth of the divine wisdom 
penetrates into the innermost recesses of our wills! " 



THE LIFE TO COME. 



[OXFORD, G-A.j NOVEMBER 26, 1882,] 



"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were 
dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens." 2 Cor. v. 1. 

THE thought of annihilation is repugnant to ev- 
ery mind in every age and every race of men. 
Explain it as we may, or deride it if we will, this 
fact remains : there is something in man that utter- 
ly refuses to die — to go into nothingness. It may 
be doubted whether any sort of education, whether 
any long-indulged habit of thinking about these 
questions as out-and-out materialists are supposed 
to think of them, ever yet sufficed to utterly hush 
that voice, deep in the secret places of our nature, 
that as soon as it can speak and as long as it can 
speak declares, as one of the fundamental beliefs of 
the human mind, its own immortality. Very often 
•avowed atheists have forgotten for a time to be con- 
sistent, and have talked about the other world and 
the hereafter; just as some of our modern unbeliev- 
ing scientists, in elaborate arguments to prove that 
there is no designing Mind in the universe, often 
employ words which imply design in the facts and 
processes of nature that they describe. 

The lowest savages and the noblest men of civil- 

(410) 



The Life to Com& 



411 



ized races agree in this, that this life is not all ; there 
is something to come; death is not and cannot be 
what it seems to be, annihilation. I know that at 
times men have affirmed that there is no hereafter, 
but they cannot keep to that track of argument; 
nature will have her revenge on their philosophy 
and somehow manage to record her protest. 

One thing is certain: whether there be such an 
essence as spirit; whether thought be the result of 
mere organization ; whether mind, which thinks and 
feels, dissolves into nothingness or no, the body does 
not. There is no annihilation for the body, by any 
skill of science or process of natural law. If science 
has settled any thing whatsoever, it has settled this: 
that matter is indestructible. Make any experiment 
you will, and with any substance. Take the hard- 
est, toughest things, or the softest and frailest. Heat 
up your furnaces till they are white, and burn this 
toughest or frailest thing in the universe. It goes 
off in flame or smoke, or sinks down into ashes, but 
you have not destroyed one atom of it. Take the 
ashes and pound them, if possible, into greater fine- 
ness, or try them with any solvents known to chem- 
istry. You may so change their form and relation 
as to lose sight of them, but you have not destroyed 
— resolved into nothingness — the very least atom. 
Whether by burning, pounding, or dissolving you 
try your experiment, the result is the same; you 
change forms, you destroy nothing. There is not 
in the whole universe one atom of any sort that 
ever existed that is extinct, non-existent, missing 
to-day. There are in the universe just as many 



412 



The Life to Come. 



atoms as when it was first created, and no more — 
unless, as it may be, God is creating new worlds. 

Now, there is something that is behind thought 
and feeling; something in which it inheres and from 
which it proceeds, jnst as bodies are necessary to the 
qualities which characterize them. It is as easy and 
reasonable to think of weight and length and thick- 
ness, of color and form, without bodies to which 
they belong, as to think of thought without some- 
thing that thinks; to think of feeling without some- 
thing that feels. To make the annihilation of mind 
a conceivable thing, it must first be proved that 
thought is a product of the bodily organization — 
a sort of secretion of the brain, just as bile is the 
secretion of the liver. But this has never been 
proved, and in the nature of the case it never can 
be proved. 

The scientific law of the conservation of substance 
and force- — a law that utterly refuses to let slip out 
of its grasp into nothingness any single atom, or 
any one form of force- — does, in my belief, absolutely 
deny and repudiate as unscientific, impossible, and 
unthinkable the notion that the something we call 
" spirit' 7 can any more cease to exist than an atom 
of matter can cease to exist. And we know that 
it is as possible to create out of nothing an atom of 
matter as it is to resolve it into nothing. 

St. Paul's language in the text is exactly scientific: 
"We know that if our earthly house of this taber- 
nacle be dissolved;" — he does not say destroyed. 
"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes," does not mean de- 
struction; only change in form and function. 



The Life to Come. 



413 



He affirms, as an article of his faith, that when 
this present tent-dwelling, called " tabernacle," is 
taken down — ;i dissolved 7 ' — " we" — that is, the soul, 
the real person — will certainly have another body 
for the indwelling of the soul. For " house not 
made with hands" here does not refer to the heav- 
enly city, or the house of the Father in which the 
"many mansions" are "prepared" for his children. 
The apostle is still speaking of the soul's house; if 
our present soul -house — this body — be dissolved, we 
will have another, aud of this he affirms — seeing 
that it is no more under any law of mortality — that 
it will be " eternal in the heavens." This " building 
of God" is antithetic to another building, namely, 
our present perishing bodies; it will be something 
which is not the soul itself — just as the body we 
now inhabit is not the soul, but only its tent and 
vehicle for a time — but a something as necessary to 
the modes of existence and uses of life in what we 
call the spiritual and eternal world as these bodies 
are necessary to our states and modes of action in 
the present world. It is the opinion of some that 
corporeity — bodily form — is necessary to the exist- 
ence of a finite spirit. It may be that a human 
being cannot exist as pure spirit — as spirit wholly 
dissociated from form. But corporeity may be and, 
in sound thinking as well as according to the doc- 
trine of the Bible, must be denied of God. For 
God can have " no form nor parts; " God is infinite, 
and there cannot be infinite form, since form signi- 
fies limitation. To talk of a four-sided triangle 
would be as rational as to speak of infinite form. 



414 



The Life to Come. 



I will not affirm that the human spirit cannot 
exist, or act, without some kind of form as its 
dwelling-place and vehicle, but it is certain that the 
Scriptures teach that, in absolute strictness of speech, 
there are no disembodied human spirits. When 
they go out of these bodies, and out of the sight and 
hearing therefore of our bodily eyes and ears, they 
assume some other form. They are said to "be 
clothed upon "with that form — not yet visible to 
us; this in the text is signified by the "house not 
made with hands." The same fact and law of ex- 
istence underlies St. Paul's argument on the resur- 
rection of the dead, where he calls the resurrection 
body "a spiritual body." 

Whether the tabernacle of the spirit spoken of 
in the text as "a house not made with hands" is 
identical with the "spiritual body," is an inquiry 
that may involve difficulty, but it need not give us 
trouble. For this much is clear: St. Paul affirms 
that when our souls go out of these bodies they as- 
sume, rather are "clothed upon" by, others. And 
the phrase "spiritual body" indicates the essential 
characteristics of the new form, whether we think 
of the soul-house that is ready for us the instant we 
move out of these present "tabernacles" that are 
daily being dissolved, or of the bodies that will be 
ours at the resurrection. 

Obviously we have here a difficulty of expression; 
language cannot perfectly adapt itself to the state- 
ment of conditions and existences now unknown to 
us. It is hardly more odd-sounding to say bodily 
spirit than it is to say "spiritual body;" but what 



The Life to Come. 



415 



else could St. Paul say, when he wished to speak of 
a something not spirit but connected with it, and 
different from and yet more like it than the bodies 
we now know? It seems to me not improbable that 
if there were some word exactly fitted to character- 
ize the form assumed by the spirit when it escapes 
from these bodies, it would appear so plain to us 
that we would immediately conclude that we un- 
derstood the whole matter fully. I speak in this 
way because it does not occur to most people that 
they no more understand how spirit dwells in these 
present bodies than they understand how it may 
dwell in some other kind of body. There is no 
greater mystery than the mode of the indwelling 
of our spirits in the bodies they now have. This 
mystery does not perplex us, because we are so fa- 
miliar with the fact that we imagine that we com- 
prehend the mode. 

If one should ask me, $'How can God give the 
spirit another body? " I answer, " I do not in the least 
know." But before he concludes against the truth 
of St. Paul's doctrine on this ground, let me ask 
him, "Do you know how God gives our spirits their 
present bodies? how did they get into them? how 
do they stay in them ? how do they get out of them? " 
As to the how of our complex existence, we know 
just as much of the mode of existence of spirit and 
body in the life to come as we know of it in the life 
that now is. That is, we know nothing of either; 
and it is not of the least consequence that we should 
know. Else God would, in some way, have told us. 

If it be asked, " What are some of the qualities 



416 



The Life to Come. 



and characteristics of this ' house not made with 
hands? 7 — this body with which the spirit is clothed 
in the invisible world when it is unclothed here in 
the visible world by the processes of nature that we 
call death? "I answer, " The apostle's language makes 
two things clear to us: (1) It is 'a spiritual body; ' 
(2) it is immortal, being 'eternal in the heavens." 7 
Sometimes we can have glimpses of more than 
we can describe or put into words. So of this re- 
markable phrase, " spiritual body." What do these 
words mean? I have thought of them very often, 
and have never satisfied myself; perhaps I never 
will. But I think I see pretty clearly one truth 
and one fact that they intimate; — a form of exist- 
ence in which the spiritual predominates over the 
material. We know how gravity binds these pres- 
ent mortal bodies to the earth, to which they will 
soon be returned. Our present bodies come under 
all the laws which control mere matter. We move 
slowly and with difficulty; we are arrested by walls 
and other obstacles. Our bodies are like other or- 
ganized bodies; the very law of their organization 
anticipates and provides for disorganization. But 
"a spiritual body 77 is not dominated by matter, or 
the laws which control it. If spiritual bodies have 
any relation to such laws, it is only as these laws 
are subservient to the ends the spirit wills to accom- 
plish. We see some faint foreshadowing of such 
relations between spirit and matter even in this 
world, where now and then some great mind and 
large heart seems almost to have control of mate- 
rial conditions, dominating the body by force of 



The Life to Come. 



417 



spirit, and using many of the mightiest agencies of 
material nature to serve its ends. 

But how transcendently superior in these respects 
will our spiritual bodies be ! As the bodies we now 
have are perfectly suited to our conditions, perfectly 
adapted to the ends for which we want bodies in 
this world, so will our spiritual bodies be perfectly 
fitted to the conditions of existence which await us 
in the other world. As we use our present bodies 
to accomplish the ends of the present life, so will 
w r e use our spiritual bodies for the ends God will 
appoint us to accomplish in the life that is to come. 

Let me dwell on this thought a moment. How 
admirably our bodies are adapted to their present 
uses! To be able to explain this adequately, both 
your preacher and his congregation should have 
perfect knowledge of anatomy, physiology, mathe- 
matics, mechanics, chemistry, possibly of other sci- 
ences also. An illustration or two will suggest what 
is not now to be discussed. For instance, the aver- 
age body is the right size, and lasts long enough for 
its uses here. I mean that if men, as a race, were 
either much larger or smaller than they are, or if 
they lived much longer than they do, they would 
be badly adjusted to the work they have to do. For 
the ordinary occupations of life, man's combination 
of nerves, ligaments, muscles, and bones, gives him 
just the right degree of strength and facility for his 
work. If the average arm were shorter or weaker, 
the average man could not raise the weights or do 
other things necessary to be done. If it were much 
longer or stronger, he would have a great deal of 
27 



418 



The Life to Come. 



force he would not need to exert; perhaps he could 
not, with this excess of force, do satisfactorily the 
kind of work necessary to be done. In a word, 
man's present bodily adjustment to his environment, 
to the world he lives in — its size, weight, and rela- 
tion to the solar system and all other systems, so far 
as we know — and to the work he has to do in this 
world, is absolutely perfect. 

You may extend this inquiry if you will, and you 
will find fitness in all points. Man's appetite of 
hunger and his function of digestion are as perfectly 
adapted to the food he needs as the length and 
strength of his arm are adjusted to the weights he 
has to lift, or to any other task he needs to perform. 
In brief, these bodies are in harmony with all the 
mathematics and mechanics and chemistry of the 
world we now live in, and are therefore perfectly 
adapted to the uses of the spirit for which bodies 
were given to spirits. 

ITow, every analogy in the universe which is open 
to our view, every principle of divine law that is 
expressed in any exhibition of creative power, as 
well as every word of inspiration, lead us to believe, 
without a shadow of doubt, that the spiritual bodies 
with which we (when I say we I mean our spirits — 
that is, our real selves) will be "clothed upon" in 
the invisible world, which we will presently enter, 
will be, in every respect, perfectly adapted to our 
needs in that mode of existence. And more, that 
mode of existence will appear to be in perfect har- 
mony with us when first we enter it; as natural to 
us as this world, as first felt in a mother's arms, ex- 



The Life to Come. 



419 



pressed in a mother's form, voiced in a mother's 
words, or mirrored in a mother's eyes, is natural to 
the baby that has just come out of the realm of the 
infinite and invisible to dwell for a time in the finite 
and visible. 

Last Sunday, when we were about to bury in the 
kind bosom of our mother earth the mere physical 
body (if you will let me employ an awkward phrase 
as antithesis to St. Paul's equally awkward phrase, 
"spiritual body") of Professor Bonnell's dear little 
girl, I made some allusion to the beautiful fact in 
nature that God, directly or through some fit agen- 
cy, prepares beforehand for the coming of every new 
life that appears in this world. "What he does per- 
fectly and upon an infinite scale, through all the 
processes and changes of nature, men do, by instinct 
and from the teachings of experience, upon a lim- 
ited scale. We prepare our fields for the seeds that 
are to be planted, and for the crops that are to be 
grown, that there may be wise and useful adjust- 
ments between our designs and the conditions under 
which we work. The expectant mother prepares a 
little world for the babe that is to come to her with 
a new prophecy of hope. We seek in all our school 
and college training to prepare our children for the 
duties that await them. 

So we may be sure that there will be perfectly 
natural and harmonious adjustments between the 
vehicles of our immortal energies — between our 
spiritual bodies and the sphere into which we go 
when we leave this present world. If it be needful 
in the life to come that we move from one place to 



420 



The Life to Come. 



another as quickly as the light moves, it may read- 
ily be done, for our volitions will not be held back 
by spiritual bodies; for spiritual bodies cannot sus- 
tain such relations to gravity as our fleshly bodies 
sustain to it, if indeed they will sustain any relation 
to it. If this be so, the limitations of time and 
space which now press upon us will be unknown. 
In many senses it may be, we shall "be as the an- 
gels," strong, swift, immortal. The astronomers 
make us dizzy when they tell us of the distances 
and magnitudes of the universe. But it is not too 
large for the explorations and useful activities of 
millions upon millions multiplied of human souls 
redeemed that are clothed upon with spiritual 
bodies. 

I do not mean to assert or to intimate that the 
many millions of far-off worlds that people space 
will be the fields of activity for redeemed spirits; 
for spiritual bodies are so different from these pres- 
ent heavy physical or natural bodies that they may 
not at all need mere material worlds for their uses. 
The worlds they will inhabit, being adapted to 
them, may well differ as much from such a world 
as this earth, or from such a world as Venus, or 
Mars, as the spiritual bodies themselves differ from 
our present natural bodies. 

If these things be true, the sphere in which spir- 
itual bodies live and move may be very close to the 
world in which we who are still in the flesh live and 
move. We do not know r how to measure distances 
or dimensions, or how to estimate relations, in such 
altogether possible coexistences. 



The Life to Come. 421 

It may be remarked here, not as explanatory of 
the mystery of the spiritual bodies that await our 
going hence, but as an illustrative instance, that the 
body in which our risen Lord manifested himself, 
during the forty days between the resurrection and 
the ascension, seems, in its appearances and disap- 
pearances, its sudden manifestations in rooms whose 
doors were shut, its ascension from the solid earthy 
which had no power to hold to him, to have been 
a spiritual body. 

How near and yet how far from us one may be 
who dwells in a spiritual body! When Jesus " man- 
ifested 5 ' himself to his disciples, it was done so in- 
stantaneously that he seemed to have been already 
there; when he " vanished," he seemed, to their eyes 
and ears and hands, as far gone from them as if a 
universe stood between. O if these eyes could see 
spiritual bodies, what visions we might behold ! How 
near we may be to them! How near they may be 
to us! Myriads of circles may be drawn around a 
common center; how the spheres of being compre- 
hend one another, we may not know. No doubt it 
is well that we cannot know and see and hear all 
that is close to us; we could hardly finish the work 
to which the Master has appointed us. It is idle, 
and it may be hurtful, to ask too curiously concern- 
ing these things. 

But we may ask, "What do the Scriptures tell us 
of the worlds, or spheres, into which the spirits of % 
the good — now clothed upon with their soul-house, 
or tabernacle, from heaven — have entered?" They 
tell us much — much more than can be set in order 



422 



The Life to Come. 



before you to-day* I shall only mention some char- 
acteristic statements — nearly all of them figurative 
— to give stronger statement of glorious facts than 
any form of literal and exact speech could convey. 

1. What we may call the negative characteristics. 
I do not dwell upon them; I only mention a few — 
your reference Bibles or a concordance will give you 
many. There is no sickness; of that country it is 
said, " The inhabitants shall no more say, I am sick." 
There is no pain, " neither sorrow, nor crying," for 
64 God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." 
" There is no night" — type of evil. There is "no 
more sea" — type to the Jews of old of desolating 
and hostile forces. There is no sin among these 
redeemed ones; — this, thank God, is no figure! 
And "there is no more death," for "death is swal- 
lowed up " — overcome of life. Life there is so in- 
tense, so godlike, that death can have no place 
among them. 

2. What we may call the positive characteristics. 
As to the place, or what is represented as place to 
help our imagination take hold on absolute truths, 
we have the most beautiful and fascinating images 
that ever moved the heart of man. The holy writ- 
ers speak of fair cities. We look through the eyes 
of the exile of Patmos, and we see walls of jasper 
and gates of pearl. We look through the open 
gates, and see streets of gold and a bright river run- 
ning through the midst of it, with trees golden with 
fruit all along its margin. The city is full of bright- 
robed and beautiful people. They bear palms of 
victory, and upon their heads are splendid crowns. 



The Life to Come. 



423 



We hear harps of gold, with the songs of the angels 
and of the saints. 

But gold is cheap, pearls are commonplace, com- 
pared to the reality. Inspiration seized upon the 
things we prize most to lift us up to the noblest 
contemplations and sentiments possible to us. 

There are many ways in which heaven is repre- 
sented to us. Just now I mention but two others, 
and they belong to each other: Our Lord speaks of 
home-like scenes and enjoyments in heaven. Laz- 
arus is in Abraham's bosom. Jesus speaks of those 
who should " sit down in the kingdom of God with 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Appealing directly 
to the home-instinct (and did it because he meant 
to satisfy it with the truth), he said: " Let not your 
heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also iu 
me. In my Father's house are many mansions; 
if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to 
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare 
a place for you, I will come again, and receive 
you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be 
also." 

God has not seen fit to give us a schedule of the 
employments of his redeemed ones when they have 
entered into that sphere where spiritual bodies are 
to be their vehicles and servants. But some things 
are too plain to admit of a moment's doubt. For 
one thing, the notion of heaven that makes it a 
place of eternal choir-practice is absurd. As if 
God's purpose in framing the worlds, and in creat- 
ing arid redeeming man, was that he might be sung 
to! There are ways of praising God other than by 



424 



The Life to Come. 



singing, sweet and good as it is. Nothing praises 
or pleases God like service. 

It is certain that activity — elevated, intense, con- 
stant, eternal — will characterize the lives of those 
redeemed spirits who are clothed upon with spirit- 
ual bodies. The very lowest forms of life indicate 
a degree of activity. The poor sponge has activity 
in virtue of its being alive. The law is universal; 
wherever there is life— vegetable, animal, or intel- 
lectual — there is action. One of the sages of an- 
tiquity expressed it thus: "To energize is to exist." 
That is, where there is existence in the sense of life, 
there is energy in action. The higher the form of 
life the greater the energy, and the intenser the ac- 
tivity. Nothing can less need proof or illustration. 

There will be service — something good to do. 
There is room enough and work enough for all. It 
may well be that we shall have to learn how to do 
our work; it is to be hoped so, for hardly anything 
is so delightful as learning. When the baby first 
comes into this world, it does not know what to do 
with itself; it does not even know the use of its lit- 
tle fingers. By and by it learns that there is enough 
in this world for its fingers to do. But this much 
is certainly true: all that we learn in the school of 
Christ here fits us for better service and nobler joys 
yonder. I fear that some of us, who only want re- 
ligion to keep us out of hell, and therefore seek as 
little as we think will do (hardly enough to do), will 
have to begin in heaven's school in a very low form 
— will have to begin there to " learn our letters" in 
the great studies of usefulness and of true happiness. 



The Life to Come. 



425 



We must conclude that in the sense of idleness 
there is no rest in heaven. There is work to be 
done there, and upon a scale so vast that it may 
some day take in the whole universe — except (shall 
I say?) that part of it which, in "outer darkness," 
is without the fair city with its jasper walls and 
gates of pearl. 

But let us not fall into the error of supposing 
that action and service mean only doing certain 
things. It is also learning; it is thinking; it is 
feeling — in a word, the use of all our redeemed fac- 
ulties. How a redeemed spirit, clothed upon with 
a spiritual body, can study, can think, can learn of 
all God's wonderful works and wonderful words! 
How such a spirit will look into the heart of things! 
How it will hear answers to its questions inaudible 
to us ! 

We see in this world great differences in capacity 
not only of learning but of truly apprehending and 
rightly feeling truth. People are born with differ- 
ing capacities; culture in books, in art, in experi- 
ence, but culture, far more, in character, makes 
greater differences. Compare two children. One 
never sees the blush of a rose/ never hears the song 
of a bird. The other has all the senses of the soul 
open. Now and then half-superstitious people say of 
such a child, "The angels talk to it." Many years 
ago, one autumn evening, just before sunset, a man 
carried a little girl, in her fourth year, to the Capi- 
tol in Nashville, Tennessee. The little one had 
never seen a great house like this before. She stood 
gazing at the great columns, the rays of the setting 



426 



The Life to Come. 



sun flashing back in golden splendors from the 
many windows. Her eyes were sparkling and her 
cheeks were flushed. " Daughter/' said the father, 
'•whose house is this?" The little thing clasped 
her hands together, a worshipful spirit shone in her 
face, and she answered, "It is God's house." 

How the beauty of God's great universe thrills 
some souls! In some souls, 

The sight of the meanest flower that blows, 
Moves thoughts that are too deep for tears. 

How some people's souls vibrate under the spell of 
music ! The man with no music in him thinks it an 
affectation, or the mere excitation of certain nerve- 
centers, like the effect of martial music upon a spir- 
ited horse. But it is not this. There are souls so 
attuned to the harmonies of music that they can 
express, not simply in songs, but in wordless music, 
thoughts that were never put into words, feelings 
that were never expressed, visions of beauty that 
were never sung, carved, nor painted. There is a 
woman in this congregation whom I have seen list- 
ening to a singer, or to an orchestra, with a face as 
of one transfixed — who felt it till it gave her pain. 

These illustrations I offer to suggest the vastly 
greater capacities of our spirits when we get our 
spiritual bodies. In this world some see and hear 
and feel more than others. But we will then all of 
us far surpass our present selves. Then we will see 
clearly "in the white light of eternity" with keener 
eyes. All forms of truth will yield up their secrets 
to us; but not all of them — we will be learning for- 



The Life to Come. 



427 



ever. Now we have glimpses of things and their 
meaning; then we will see what rainbows, and flow- 
ers, and snow-crystals, and sweet human faces really 
mean. The whole universe will be close to us; we 
can read it then. Then we can shape our questions 
aright; then we can understand the answers which 
will come to us out of secrets that have been locked 
up since the creation of the worlds. Then we will, 
with our finer ears, understand the many voices of 
God in his works. Vs r e will understand the song 
of the seas and the storms, and of all things that 
God has made. 

But best of all the possibilities of that world, we 
will be capable of diviner spiritual thought and ex- 
perience. Our susceptibility to divine influence- — 
to the communion of the blessed Spirit— will be 
quickened. AYe will begin to understand the char- 
acter of Jesus Christ our Lord and Brother. " We 
will be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 

How does the doctrine of our text and of this 
discussion apply to the future states of the impeni- 
tent and unsaved? They also will have spiritual 
bodies. There will be no bodies in that world that 
material fire can burn; spiritual bodies are not sub- 
ject to the laws of combustion. Monstrous fur- 
naces and broiling flesh — these are pagan concep- 
tions; they are not in the word of God. 

Sin is hideous everywhere, but it is most hideous 
in the most nobly gifted. The unsaved, because per- 
sistently impenitent, will when they have their spir- 
itual bodies be capable of greater wickedness, and 
therefore greater suffering. Suffering follows sin; 



428 



The Life to Come. 



hell begins in this world — it can never end till there 
is an end of sin. Of those whose sins have shut 
them out of the holy city — it might be worse for 
them could they be shut inside of it — it may be 
said of a truth : " Their worm dieth not," and " the 
smoke of their torment ascendeth forever." 

St. John, in setting forth the blessed doctrine that 
the redeemed ones, when they enter into their spir- 
itual bodies, shall be like Christ, adds this saying: 
" Whoso hath this hope in him purifieth himself 
even as He is pure." This is our chief business — 
rightly understood, our only business — in this world. 
And God's chief concern about us — rightly under- 
stood, his only concern — is to get us ready for our 
spiritual bodies and our immortal duties in the 
world to come. 

We may conclude, this morning, with St. Paul's 
burning words that go before our text: 

"We are troubled on every side, yet not dis- 
tressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; per- 
secuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not de- 
stroyed ; always bearing about in the body the dying 
of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might 

be made manifest in our body For which 

cause we faint not; but though our outward man 
perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, 
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory; while we look not at the things 
which are seen, but at the things which are not 
seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, 
but the things which are not seen are eternal." 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ft 



028 310 185 A 



